Chapter 71: Finals, Vs Arthur,the Sword Saint (5)

**

The Spear landed its blade against something. It might have been the adrenaline, so Arthur might not have felt the damage he received. He opens his eyes slowly, checking out where he had been struck. An image of a spear appeared directly left of him, as he access what the situation was.

Red deliberately missed his shot when throwing the spear.

"Don't screw with me. Get up now.", Red glared at Arthur. His face showed an expression of annoyance, as he picked up Arthur's sword, flinging it back to him.

"I won't accept a win from you underestimating me."

"Very well," Arthur replied, picking his sword up and walking back. Red also walked to where he first started out picking the mask up along his way. As much as he didn't want to rely on Ryong's power, he had to put on the mask when it comes to fighting against a serious Arthur. Especially when he was planning to go all out this time. Red could only be equipped and unequipped his weapons without the mask. Other than that the rest of the function could only be used when the mask is put on. He needed Blue's help.

**

[Red's POV]

[*Mask Equipped*]

[*Welcome back Master.*]

Putting on the mask, there wasn't any noise or sound made by Ryong. If there were an option to mute him, I would have done it. But so far, not a single word from him.

Looking forward looks like Arthur's ready. He's already performing the sword dance beautifully, measuring his steps. But something is different this time. His hair starts floating a little, his blue eyes glowed a little, and his sword Aura, all manifested on his own.

"I never went full strength before until now. Try not to disappoint me."

I cursed my stupid mouth. Shit. My dumb ego might actually get me killed this time around. I swallowed my saliva into a gulp as cold sweat flowed down my face. Signs of nervousness shown throughout my face as I scratch my head to hide it, wondering what the hell can I do now.

[*Fang Equipped *]

[*Old Rusty Shield Equipped*]

Equipping the sword and shield combo. Both of us stood still, waiting for each other to initiate an attack. I tried looking for anything that I can use to exploit his weakness out of Arthur. Unfortunately, he doesn't have a single opening, every attack I could think of will ended up getting destroyed by him. The pressure of being overwhelmed by him increases as time passes.

Arthur made the first move, feinting an attack by lifting his right arm. I got shocked, lifting my shield reactively.

"THAT IDIOT___", I could hear King Darius shouting out at me from the audience.

Before I knew what happened, Arthur spins his sword and charged in with the blade empowered with an immense sword aura. Like a fairy, he moved fluidly forward and with his might, drives the sword toward me. An image of a full moon can be seen behind him as the sword Aura was spiraling alongside the sword releasing a bright blue wave of light spinning at the top of the blade.

[Moon-Styled Swordsmanship Act II: Moon Piercer]

"Damn it!!" I cursed as I realise the only way out is to use a skill that has a large Aura output to neutralize Arthur's attack.

In the heat of the moment, I pulled out my copied skill list and chose a skill.

[Mimicry: Royal Shield Bash]

A Single Target Skill

An upgraded Shield Bash that evokes the animal spirit of the King. The Damage impacts Target's entire body. Inflict extra damage, the closer the target is to the shield. Block all attacks.

A Skill befitting that for a King.

Requirement: King and Shield equipped.

Status Effect: Stun Guaranteed

Skill Cooldown: 5 hours

The old rusty shield shines brightly as I charged in using shield bash. A transparent white radius covers my entire body as my old rusty shield was replaced with a huge shield that has an insignia of a lion on it. The Huge shield also had wings protruding out of it as it absorbs all of Arthur's attack, sucking the killing intent and aura with it. As the blade came so close to the shield, a spirit version of the lion from the shield emerges as it opens its jaws and bit Arthur in his left shoulder.

"ArghH!" Screaming in pain, Arthur's attack weakened, causing me to have the advantage to bash the shield directly at him.

-Whampp!

It succeeded causing Arthur to be groggy and weakened. Taking this chance, I summoned Fang in its Greatsword form and slammed it on his head. 

1 second was all it takes for Arthur to recover. Using the sword dance as a defensive manoeuvre, he skillfully directed all my energy and strength in that swing to land on the floor.

Pissed at the outcome, I swap my weapon to Naga and pour both aura and mana into the sword, striking the weapon in a diagonal slash. The sword extended out, slamming the hunk of metal right into Arthur's sword. However, Arthur didn't think much of the attack and yet again deflected it. He pushed himself forward, slashing me vertically and horizontally. I forcefully swap to Fang to parry his attacks.

-Cljnkkk

-Cheongg

The pace of the fight speeds up exponentially as every time Arthur swings his sword, it began to blur out but it was smashing against my weapon continuously. I lower my stance and pierced the weapon with all my might. He anticipated it and step out the left with gentle feet, landing like how a fairy lands.

On the other hand, while falling in mid-air, I summoned Stix and drives the spear ahead at his head, he dodged it at the very last moment before landing a hit on my body with the hilt of his sword.

"GUHAKKK!!!!" I yelled as the hit landed on my solar plexus, driving me to the other side of the arena. I got up trying to inhale the air but Arthur set up his next process for his technique. 

"This is hard," I complained, forcing myself up to face him, staring at the menacing figure that is the Sword Saint.

**

Though the match dragged on due to Red's persistence, the crowd were still very certain that Arthur would win the fight regardless of how much Red tried to resist. 

King Darius on the other hand was conflicted. The young man that his disciple was facing is one of the very best in the world. But somehow, he stood his ground and fought using whatever he could. He didn't even accept the win when he realise his opponent was underestimating him. He wanted an earnest fight with the best.

The nobles and Royals were especially shocked when Red executed a skill that was exclusive to royalty. King Darius, laughs quietly as he didn't expect the attack he tried making use of Red would turn out so useful against the sword saint.

At this point everyone just sat there silently, focused on the match.

Arthur maintained his coolness in the battle, he was never defeated and the reason was that he was calm and composed, watching out for every attack and his surroundings to make every situation advantageous for him. On the other hand, Red was a wild animal, rushing in at any moment he could find to hopefully land an attack. Red executed many attacks, ranging from long fiery slashes that were directed at Arthur with the help of Fang's innate ability to Short burst damage from the rapid piercing attack imbued with ice due to Stix's innate ability.

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All these attacks were wiped out in just two hits from Arthur as he continued his sword dance gaining more power for his technique.

This guy is just cheating at this point. This is so unfair, was what Red thought as he tried to stop the sword dance from progressing anymore.

But it was too late, Arthur already completed it and finish executing his next already.

Some argued, that the more complex the movement of swordsmanship, the stronger it is. But it is not the case for Moon-Styled Swordsmanship. Practitioners of Moon-Styled Swordsmanship relied on simple movement to execute their attacks. Anything flashy and extra would be deemed useless. Which was why It was one of the best Swordsmanship because its simplicity cuts through everything.

[Moon-Styled Swordsmanship Act I: Lunar Divide]

A simple forward swing, slashing vertically.

This was all it takes to cut through everything in its path. With the additional usage of aura, only a defensive move from Moon-Styled Swordsmanship can stop this attack.

Combo: 1

Condition: Practitioner of Moon-Styled Swordsmanship 

With the slash Arthur did so close to him, a huge long slash was produced moving right in front of Red, with no way to dodge it.

"Shit. I didn't want to expose myself."

Using the mimicry list, he closed his eyes

and______

[Mimicry: Moon Dance]

Red started using his leg, moving in a sequence of steps. The motion was very similar to what Arthur was doing previously, his movement had a fluid motion as he turns his hip and started stepping back to have a distance to act upon Arthur's attack. He swung his blade, trance by the moment of his legs, together the sword slash cleanly and sharply making it a very smooth transition. 

"That movement.....You can't copy it in one look, it's nothing but a cheap imitation." Arthur replied, performing his sword dance, prepping for the next attack

[Mimicry: Moon-Styled Swordsmanship Act VII: Gibbous Laceration]

Fang's blade was driven in the direction of Arthur's feet, the sword was dragged upwards, slashing along the long-range slashes inflicted by Arthur.

With the help of the afterimages produced by Red, two of the motion of the swinging of the blade was replicated, swinging upwards as well. But there was a difference between Red and Arthurs's technique. Arthur had 3 identical slashs that formed a sphere defending and reflecting against all attacks. However in Red's case, he had 3 afterimages that formed to closed up the sphere, the only difference is that his 3 afterimages were all using different weapons. Red was using Fang in his long sword form while one of his afterimages was using a greatsword and the other using a dagger.

This created a bigger diameter of the sphere compared to what was normally formed.

"What!?" Arthur exclaimed in shock as [Lunar Divide] clashed against Red's [Gibbous Laceration] and it negated both attacks.

Red's body immediately went back to sword dance as he preps for the next attack. 

Apparently, [Moon Dance] is a buff skill that would always be active unless the user chose to deactivate it. Once it's deactivated, the Moon-Styled Swordsmanship Technique would be useless to him as he can't use it without the sword dance.

Arthur's face rose in anger as he got ready for sword dance and prepared to unleashed another one of the techniques.

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