Reborn as the Last van Ambrose

Jin Tao’s blades launched forward the moment the match began, six curved weapons slicing through the air at different angles and speeds.

Grim didn’t bother trying to track them all. Instead, he stepped to the side, Echo’s blade flashing as he deflected the two that came closest. The sound of metal on metal rang out, but Grim immediately noticed something strange. The impact was far heavier than it should have been for blades that size.

[Weight manipulation,] the voice confirmed. [He can make them light for speed or heavy for impact, shifting between the two in an instant.]

"Interesting. I know Lianna told me, but its idfferent when you feel it." Grim muttered, dodging rather than blocking the next attack. One of the blades embedded itself in the arena floor where he’d been standing, driving several inches into the stone.

Jin Tao stood calmly at the center of the arena. Each gesture of his fingers sent his blades in new patterns, creating a deadly dance around Grim.

"Is running all you can do, Ambrose?" Jin Tao called. "I expected more from the famous White Death’s grandson."

Grim smirked. "Just getting a feel for your technique. Impressive control, by the way."

"I’ve spent twenty years perfecting it," Jin Tao replied, his expression showing the faintest hint of pride.

"Twenty years?" Grim’s smirk widened. "And that’s the best you can do?"

Jin Tao’s eyes narrowed, and the floating blades suddenly accelerated, their trajectories shifting mid-flight. Grim noted the change in tactics. Jin Tao was reacting to the taunt, becoming more aggressive. Predictable.

[He’s good,] the voice commented as Grim parried another blade, feeling the weight shift from heavy to light as he deflected it. [But unbalanced emotionally. Use that.]

"Planning to actually fight at some point?" Grim called out, feigning boredom as he sidestepped another attack. "Or are you just going to throw toys at me all day?"

A ripple of laughter ran through the crowd. Jin Tao’s jaw tightened visibly, and his next series of attacks came faster, more chaotically. One blade sliced through the edge of Grim’s sleeve, drawing a thin line of blood across his forearm.

"First blood to me," Jin Tao said, his calm demeanor returning. "Perhaps you should focus more on fighting and less on talking."

Grim glanced at the minor cut, unimpressed. "Just making it interesting for the crowd."

He had been testing Jin Tao’s patterns, looking for the rhythm in the attacks. Now, as the blades circled back for another assault, Grim changed tactics. Rather than dodging, he charged ahead.

One blade was deflected into the path of another, causing them to collide with a resounding clang. A third missed its target as Grim seemed to fade like mist, reappearing three steps closer to Jin Tao than he had been a moment before.

The crowd gasped. Even Jin Tao’s composure slipped, his eyes widening slightly at the unexpected maneuver.

Jin Tao recovered quickly, gesturing sharply. His remaining blades converged on Grim from multiple angles, while the two that had collided rose again, vibrating with energy.

"Weight Shifting: Mountain’s Descent!" Jin Tao called out.

The blades suddenly plummeted toward the ground, dragging Grim down with them as the air itself seemed to grow heavy around him. It was like being caught in an invisible net, each movement requiring twice the normal effort.

"Gravity manipulation too?" Grim said through gritted teeth, fighting against the increased weight. "Now that’s worth seeing."

[He’s splitting his attention between too many techniques,] the voice observed. [His control over the blades weakens when he focuses on the gravity field.]

As he struggled against the increased gravity, he kept his eyes on the blades. Their movements were less precise now, their coordination diminished. An opportunity.

"Is this supposed to impress me?" Grim taunted, forcing himself to stand straighter despite the crushing pressure. "My training weights were heavier than this."

Jin Tao’s expression flickered with annoyance. He increased the gravitational pull, sweat beading on his forehead from the effort. The stones of the arena floor began to crack beneath Grim’s feet.

"Yield," Jin Tao commanded. "You can’t escape the Mountain’s Descent."

Grim’s response was a sudden, explosive burst of movement. Using the cracked stone beneath him for leverage, he launched himself forward, Echo leading the way. The blade cut through the nearest of Jin Tao’s floating weapons, severing it cleanly in two.

The crowd roared its approval as Grim landed in a crouch, the gravity field weakening momentarily due to Jin Tao’s surprise.

"My turn," Grim said.

What followed was a display of the Celestial Mist techniques that left the audience breathless.

Jin Tao fought back with increasing desperation, his remaining blades spinning in ever more complex patterns while he struggled to reestablish his gravity field. But Grim was inside his guard now, too close for the distance-based techniques to be fully effective.

One by one, Jin Tao’s blades were deflected, disabled, or knocked away. With each loss, the eastern master’s composure cracked further.

"You’re quite good," Grim acknowledged, deflecting yet another attack.

"I’m ranked twelfth in the empire," Jin Tao said through clenched teeth, sweat now running freely down his face as he maintained his last two blades.

"Not after today."

A murmur ran through the crowd as Grim suddenly shifted from defense to offense. Echo blurred as he executed a flawless sequence of strikes, each faster than the last. His movements flowed like water, yet struck with the precision of a master calligrapher’s brush.

Jin Tao was forced backward, step by step, his remaining blades barely managing to intercept Grim’s attacks. In a desperate move, he abandoned the gravity technique entirely, focusing all his energy on one final assault.

"Weight Shifting: Heaven and Earth!"

The two remaining blades suddenly expanded, growing to twice their original size as they converged on Grim from opposite directions. At the same time, the fragments of the destroyed blades rose from the arena floor, turning into a cloud of deadly metal shards.

It was an impressive final gambit, and the crowd gasped as the attack closed in on Grim from all sides.

[Now?] the voice asked, sensing Grim’s intentions.

"Now," Grim agreed silently.