Chapter 1392 - Arrows > Ghosts

The many ribbons of light filling the room all shivered and moved, gathering around the disciple from the Sword Palace. They wrapped around her blade like a loom before she stabbed forward, unleashing all the gathered energy at once.

Jake, who was already busy dealing with Azal, reacted as best he could by trying to force back the Risen and buy himself some space. He managed to do so with a Pride-empowered arcane explosion, but he failed to stop Azal’s flying sword which continued trying to skewer him from behind.

That’s when he realized Azal had let himself be pushed back on purpose, as rather than continue trying to stab him, the sword erupted with spectral chains that were already latched onto Jake the second they were summoned. It was an unavoidable attack, and quite frankly, something he could easily get rid of under usual circumstances.

The problem was that it would still take him a moment to shrug off the chains, at which point they’d have already done their job by stopping him from using One Step and escaping Xiurong’s final attack.

Gritting his teeth, Jake erupted with power once again, destroying all the spectral chains, but it was too late. Flowing ribbons of energy swept past him, trapping him in a tunnel of spinning light, and as he looked towards the end, he saw Xiurong standing there, her entire body wrapped in these same ribbons.

Focusing, Jake got ready as she swung her sword once, unleashing a wave of shimmering lights that soared down towards him like a tornado within the sealing tunnel of ribbons. There were simply too many attacks, forcing Jake to wrap himself in his wings and defend as best he could as the ribbons arrived, tearing into his arcane barrier and wings.

He was practically in a meat grinder with no escape, and all his attempts to destroy the tunnel of light ribbons proved ineffective. Some powerful concepts were in play, and all he could do was defend, as he knew this had to be utterly draining for Xiurong to pull off.

Through his sphere, he saw she was constantly swinging to keep the dancing ribbons going while slowly walking forward, performing a dance of her own. Jake observed her closely and started trying to adapt as he’d noticed that some of the cutting ribbons were far more dangerous than others. While hundreds were released every moment, each swing appeared to send out an empowered ribbon that was capable of breaking through his arcane barrier and cutting deeply into his wings. At this rate, they would soon be torn apart entirely, leaving him far more vulnerable. Even now, if not for his armor and passive barrier from Arcane Awakening, his body would have been filled with hundreds, if not thousands, of small cuts.

While still keeping his body mostly wrapped in his wings, Jake opened them a little as he also stepped towards Xiurong, swinging his own katars as he focused on the empowered ribbons of light. He failed to properly identify the first two, leading to large slashes across his chest, but the third one he successfully parried, followed by the fourth and fifth.

Jake and Xiurong kept advancing towards one another as one danced and the other responded in kind, Jake blocking or deflecting every empowered ribbon of light as they slowly drew closer.

While Jake had naturally never encountered this particular attack before, he couldn’t help but feel that his opponent was inexperienced in using it. While it was certainly powerful, this didn’t feel overwhelming, and based on what Jake had heard of that first dance he’d rudely interrupted by stabbing her before she could activate it, that one sounded more powerful.

This one clearly also went on too long, though Xiurong seemed reluctant to stop, probably because she knew that once she did, it would be over for her. She was already on her last legs, and only the skill that flooded her body with energy kept the toxins at bay, temporarily prolonging her life.

She tried to speed up, her tempo getting faster, but Jake matched her with every step, and he felt the “fake” ribbons become weaker and weaker as all her power was packed into the real slashes. Those did get harder to deal with, but he remained more than capable as they continued approaching one another.

Finally, when they got close enough for Jake to see his chance, he pounced. Charging forward, Jake deflected several more slashes, and he expected to see panic on Xiurong’s face, but she didn’t seem to react in the slightest as she was far too immersed in her own dance.

Her eyes were closed as every slash kept getting faster while Jake also got closer. When he was only a few dozen meters away, he believed that victory was within reach. He deflected one more slash, advancing before his katars were soon able to reach her.

Right then, her eyes suddenly shot open, blazing with realization as she held her sword with both hands. Jake, who was only a couple of meters away, was already in a stance to attack as she lifted her sword. It was as if the world slowed down, only her sword moving normally, and Jake immediately felt the change.

The ribbons of light warped all around him, and the tunnel seemed to close in and distort, wrapping itself around his body like an inescapable cloth he was caught within.

I see, Jake thought, realizing what she’d done, as he couldn’t help but smile as the lights closed around him. Used me as a whetstone to comprehend her own attack.

Then she slashed, the entire tunnel of ribbons tearing apart as the room was filled with flayed lights falling like shimmering stars. She stood with her sword raised, the light fading as she looked up... right as a katar pierced her throat.

“Too shallow,” Jake muttered as he pushed his weapon further before swinging with his other one, sending the head of the disciple of the Sword Palace flying into the air while suppressing his own heavy breathing.

His armor was flayed as seven large cuts stretched across his chest and all around to his back as if he’d been whipped. In that final moment, it was as if her sword wrapped around his body, doing so seven times in an instant as he was cut pretty badly. Unfortunately for her, despite her enlightenment, she was still imperfect in her execution, and while Jake wasn’t the most durable, he was more than resilient enough to still take such an attack.

The falling head of Xiurong turned into blue wisps of energy that dispersed into nothingness mid-air, and at the same time, Jake got a notification confirming that one more person was down.

*You have slain [Human - lvl 363 / Illustrious Dancer of The Luminous Blade - lvl 377 / Master Luminous Swordsmith  – lvl 350] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level.

Jake briefly skimmed her class and profession, and while he had a lot of thoughts about them, he shelved them for now, as he only had time to confirm that another Administrator was dead and to check if Caleb was still kicking.

Administrators remaining: 4/41

This scenario had turned into two one-versus-one fights, and Jake turned his attention towards Azal, who hadn’t made any moves to attack but simply stood by and observed during Xiurong’s last dance.

“One could argue she’s the biggest winner of this fight thus far,” Azal commented, looking at the sword that was now back in his hand. “Her swordsmanship will take another leap after this encounter, and once she refines her dance further, she’ll only be more frightening. I feel sorry for anyone who will encounter her Territory once she reenters the simulation.”

“She is approaching this place with the right mindset,” Jake nodded, confident that, despite dying, Xiurong was more than satisfied with what had gone down. She wasn’t even the main person the Dao Sect banked on competing for the World Wonder, so wasn’t she in this event primarily with the hope of growing stronger? Considering that, yeah, she had won this day.

“One can hope I’ll also be as fortunate as her,” Azal said, lifting his sword towards Jake. “We’d better finish this before those two in the Shadow Realm rejoin us. Or, well, let’s be realistic, before the Chosen of the Heartsoul Daolord returns.”

“No time to lose, then,” Jake agreed as he quickly whipped out his bow right as Azal also shot forward, not immediately throwing his sword again and controlling it like some stabby drone.

Arrows filled the room soon after, with Azal blocking them with summoned ghosts and slashes of his sword that sent out glowing green waves of blight energy that still let out those horrific screeches.

Jake also realized that while Azal had left him and Xiurong alone to finish their final clash, he hadn’t simply stood there and observed. The miasma that filled the entire room had grown even denser, and Jake felt that simply existing within the environment was dealing continuous damage to him. His poison mist had also been entirely out-competed, and unfortunately for Jake, Xiurong’s last strike had shredded his wings entirely, and he didn’t find it worth the resource investment to regenerate them.

Pride could still keep the energy at bay for the most part, though the energy drain had spiked significantly, making him condense the surrounding area, which he kept free of death-affinity energy. Azal took advantage of the environment by spawning far more ghosts, with the variety of ways he utilized them only increasing.

Some merged and created energy attacks to pierce his Pride domain, others turned themselves into barriers to deflect or outright block his arrows, and some simply entered Azal’s body and sword, seemingly empowering his next attack whenever one was absorbed.

Jake had already realized it before, but of his two swordfighter opponents, Azal was definitely the stronger party. He was also a true all-rounder, much like Jake himself. He used magic, was skilled in both ranged and close quarters, and his stat distribution also seemed a lot more balanced based on how durable he’d proven to be thus far.

All factors that made the fight more enjoyable from Jake’s perspective.

With only one opponent and having pushed his boosting skill all the way, Jake had a far easier time creating distance between himself and his opponent, eventually forcing Azal to also focus more on attacking with magic, and he also switched to hurling his flying sword once more.

Dealing with the sword was definitely the toughest part, as Jake really didn’t want to even get nicked by it. The intense death energy and souls within were a pain to deal with in every sense of the word, and fortunately for him, he was very good at dodging.

Due to the sheer quantity of attacks from the flying sword, ghosts, and Azal launching beams and still flying and teleporting after Jake at high speeds, Jake still couldn’t avoid everything, but he gave back more than he received as Azal was struck by several arrows as they flew through the room.

Jake also made use of the large furniture, flying under the sofa and getting out of Azal’s line of sight, making it harder for the Risen to attack with his sword. The guy relied on the death affinity energy in the air and his eyes to attack, and between the Pride domain and Jake flying under and behind massive pieces of furniture, he kept putting Azal in tough spots.

These brief moments of reprieve after dodging behind something allowed Jake to get off a few Arcane Powershots, blasting the Risen away while leaving nasty wounds on his undead body and also blowing off parts of his armor.

Both of them burned through resources at a rapid rate while going all out, the room getting torn asunder as Azal quickly got rid of most things Jake could use to hide behind, utterly destroying them while Jake’s arcane bolts and orbs that he summoned to keep the ghosts at bay also did their fair share.

Azal, likely knowing things weren’t going well for him, pushed his boosting skill further than usual, finally managing to close the gap and force Jake into melee. Switching to his katars, Jake and the Risen exchanged hundreds of blows, with Jake consistently on the losing end, only able to defend and unable to find the slightest opening. In fact, he kept getting struck by minor attacks from ghosts, and remnant energy from Azal’s powerful sword blasts wormed its way into his body, slowly corroding away at his life energy.

Still, Jake held on, and the second he got a chance to disengage, he hit Azal with a quick Primal Gaze to freeze him before kicking the Risen in the chest, using that as a footfall to teleport upwards and force the fight back to being a ranged battle.

For the next few exchanges, Jake was once again superior and landed several blows before Azal finally managed to force him into a melee again. That went on until Jake got another opportunity to get away, and so the two switched back and forth several times as their battle stretched on, wounds accumulating on both of them.

Given the current situation and how things were dragging out, this was where one big gap between the two started to show. While Azal was powerful and could roughly match Jake equally for a time, he wouldn’t be able to keep it up for long.

Risen only had two resources. Mana Points and Spirit Points. Spirit Points were effectively a fusion between the stamina and health points resources, effectively meaning that all throughout the fight and with every attack, Azal effectively burned through his own life energy. Sure, he also used mana, but clearly, most of his attacks used Spirit Energy.

While both of them were burning through their energies, Jake was still more than good in that department. He had extremely high stats due to all his titles, and he even had Anomalous Soul giving him 25% more to all resources for every one of these stats. On top of that, the mask from the King gave 25% more mana while also allowing him to regenerate it pretty damn quickly, all factors that added to Jake rarely, if ever, finding himself lacking resources in fights like these.

Something Azal seemed to also realize. His attacks started to lack the usual power behind them, while Jake didn’t slow down in the slightest, and the boosting skill of the Risen also seemed to be taking quite a toll on his body, while Jake was still holding on fine. Despite facing such a powerful opponent, he was still pacing himself, knowing that even after Azal, the fighting wouldn’t be over.

Azal getting weaker resulted in Jake managing to land a particularly nasty Arcane Powershot, blasting the Risen down into one of the giga-sized chairs that blew apart from the impact.

“This is frustrating,” Azal’s words echoed through the room from beneath the pile of broken furniture. “But... unsurprising.”

Jake, who’d been prepared to land a follow-up attack, lowered his bow as he felt Azal’s aura grow weaker than before, and he quickly realized why:

The Risen had purposefully lowered the output of his boosting skill.

A bit perplexed, Jake watched as the Risen slowly rose from the broken chair, his body a big mess from their fight. He was clearly exhausted, yet Jake felt that he remained more than a danger. He clearly still had powerful skills to show off, something they both knew.

“I could make a last stand... show every trump card I have. Yet, even if I do so, I would still lose, wouldn’t I?” Azal said with a wry smile as he looked up towards Jake. “Because you also have far more to show. If not, you would never have won against Ell’Hakan.”

Jake didn’t deny that as he watched the Risen let out a sigh. “Information is valuable, and while I would love to see some of your trump cards, I don’t believe it’s worth showing off mine in this setting. Especially not when I would be doing so to three individuals, including a Judge from the Court of Shadows.”

“I’m surprised you can also detect them,” Jake said, giving a nod of recognition. For a while, he’d felt the observation of two individuals who were clearly still within the Realm of Shadows. They were just watching, and that alone made it pretty clear that their fight was over, too.

“I have keen senses towards that kind of thing,” Azal chuckled. “I would love to fight you in another setting, but it feels pointless to do it now. So with that in mind, I bid you farewell, and let us meet again.”

Jake was surprised by what the Risen planned to do, but he quickly got his answer as Azal’s blade floated in front of him before proceeding to stab him in the chest, both him and his weapon turning into blue wisps of dispersing energy immediately after, leaving Jake staring for several seconds before he realized...

Wait, did he just off himself to get the Prima Credits for the kill?