Chapter 754 - The twin blade
754 The twin blade
Ester soon saw the bloody yellow blade on the sword start to bubble as if it was boiling. Faint steam also became visible, causing Ester to worry she might be in danger.
Bloody took a swinging stance and flexed his arm muscles. The veins bulged, and the arm was swung with great might. The sword was too far to hit Ester, but what was on the blade was a different story.
Even though Ester was about two meters away from Bloody, her survival instincts told her it was dangerous to remain still. Momentarily, her eyes were able to see the dangerous yellow blood on the blade shift as if it was about to be thrown.
Dozens of droplets of dangerous bubbling yellow blood shot in her direction. Ester thanked all the experiences with death to have allowed her to perceive such a risky move.
Ester moved her limbs and leaned her body before performing multiple aerial tricks. The wind sigil tattoos covering her body increased the speed of her movement and slightly diverted any blood droplets from landing on her.
Ester side flipped and stood straight when the dangerous projectiles when Bloody stopped swinging his sword and using up all the blood on the blade.
Ester moved her gaze to her clothes, then to her skin. Her clothes had a lot of melted holes in them. Her skin was slightly grazed, and the areas where it touched her skin were red, as if she was lightly scalded.
Ester moved her gaze to the ground next. She saw multiple one-inch deep holes with faint steam evaporating. The damage was not to be trifled with.
“The wind sigil tattoos have saved me. ” Ester murmured while raising her hand to see her red glove was still undamaged. “I need to be more careful next time.”
.....
Bloody moved his sword and touched the shield in his other hand. The yellow blood on the shield moved as if it was alive and started climbing the blade. In a matter of seconds, Bloody held a sword with a bloody yellow blade.
Ester opened her hands. A wind sigil appeared above the back of her hand. The light gradually became brighter, and above her palm collected and condensed wind and mana.
Ester gritted her teeth and curled her fingers. With an oomph, the wind formed a marble-sized ball of destructive wind. She was prepared to attack with her class instead of her blade dance.
*Clang* Bloody hit his shield with his sword after noticing Ester was preparing to attack with her magic instead of her attack.
However, Bloody was a little confused as to how a ball of wind could appear as if Ester was a mage. He heard Ester was a sigil mage and not a mage. It meant she was about to lose her hands just to try inflicting little or no damage to his large swole body.
Ester leaned her body before rushing to attack. Her speed was increased by the wind sigils while her body was being overstressed by the large amount of mana consumption her spells were using.
Regardless, Ester didn’t falter. She leaped and shouted, “Burst Forth!” while overextending her hands to injure Bloody.
Vincent swiftly sidestepped and evaded an attack in the nick of time. A smirk appeared on his face the moment he extended his index finger with malicious intent.
Punchingbag swung his other back to hit Vincent. At that moment, he believed Vincent had suddenly become faster. His large fist could only graze Vincent’s hair after Vincent crouched.
Vincent tightened his leg muscles before raising his body with his index finger as if it was a spear. “Checkmate.” He commented with a faint confident grin on his face.
Punchingbag did not know the reason why Vincent had to say checkmate. All Vincent did was stab his large swole chest.
More accurately, stab the same location the human heart could be found. Yet the chest was too large for a finger to reach his heart. Punchingbag regarded the attack as futile.
Punchingbag grunted while revealing a frown. He moved his head back before swinging his head down. For some reason, Vincent didn’t move to escape the powerful attack, causing the forehead to land on Vincent’s head.
*Thud* Vincent felt dizzy for a moment, and his eyes blinked a few times. However, he knew how much was riding on his next move. The move to activate the network of condensed mutated mana he left inside Punchingbag’s body.
Thanks to Vincent’s Mutated Pain Mitigation, he did not receive the full might of the blow, yet the force was enough to cause a minor concussion.
Vincent widened his eyes and extended both his arms. “Shatter!” He exclaimed while shoving ten fingers into Punchingbag’s chest.
Punchingbag scoffed at the attack. He raised his head to deliver another headbutt. He hoped to crush Vincent’s skull this time, but the situation was not as he saw it.
Condensed mutated mana rushed inside Punchingbag’s large swole body. Each time the root-like mana reached a wound containing Vincent’s condensed mutated mana, the condition for the trigger was met, and each location Vincent had finger shanked imploded.
Punchingbag popped like bubble wrap. Pop after the other could be heard as if a kid was having fun popping the bubbles of a bubble wrap. Blood splattered, and Punchingbag grunted painfully.
Vincent took a couple of steps back. He staggered after the hit to the head he received and after using a lot of mana to direct it inside Punchingbag’s large swole body forcefully.
The audience became noisy at the view before them. They saw a gladiator who was about to beat Vincent suddenly suffer from continuous tiny explosions. Many wondered how Vincent managed to force Punchingbag’s muscles to pop.
“Ladies and gentlemen. When we thought Vincent Lionheart was about to lose, he proved us wrong. When he was about to get headbutted for the second time, he stood his ground and attacked without fearing the consequences of failure.”
The commentator looked at Darwin and then at the representative. With an excited voice, he continued, “However, that doesn’t mean Vincent Lionheart is safe. We can all see him staggering from the hit to his head. That means he is that dedicated to winning the judgment by combat and proving to all of us that his version of the truth is the one the dragon gods have chosen because of his victory.”
*Tsk* The representative clicked his tongue while his eyes glared at Punchingbag for being the first gladiator to be close to losing after powering up.
Vincent stopped. He closed his eyes and gently shook his head. “Does berserker mode give them iron bones?” He complained while rubbing his head.
[Vincent. Look at Ester!] Kazumi urged.
Vincent swiftly turned his head. He was worried something bad that the commentator didn’t have the time to mention happened.
Vincent saw Ester hovering in mid-air, but it wasn’t a nice view. Bloody was blocking her condensed wind balls with the edge of his yellow blood-covered blade and with the shield covered by yellow blood.
Bloody was taking a step forward, one step after the other. Ester was being pushed back, yet how she could remain hovering in mid-air was puzzling many of the audience members.
“Ladies and gentlemen! Could this be what we think it is? Could Ester Lionheart have decided to sacrifice her hands and possibly her arms to injure the gladiator Bloody?”
Darwin crossed his arms and grinned. He found it amusing how most of the people present thought Ester was going to get injured by her own magic. He wondered how the reception would be after they found the truth about Ester’s class.
Ester increased her wind sigils’ output. She didn’t want to be kept pushed back. 𝐟𝓇eℯ𝒘𝙚𝚋𝓃𝐨𝘷𝗲Ɩ. co𝓶
Ester needed to prove to those around her and, most importantly, to herself that she could take on one opponent, even if he was far stronger than her, and he was fighting with about seventy percent of his current potential.
However, Ester hoped too much for her situation to change.
Bloody’s face contorted an angered expression. The blood on the sword and shield bubbled as if it was acid. With a firm grip and veins bulging more than before, he twisted his body and swung Ester far from him.
Ester was thrown meters away. The moment she landed on the ground, she rolled many times until her body stopped rolling by itself. Ester was injured and in trouble now.
“Ladies and gentlemen. What a powerful exchange that was.”
“Nevertheless, I wonder how Ester Lionheart’s arms are faring. They do not appear to be severed, but I wonder how badly damaged they became since, unfortunately for her, the ten-minute mark for surrender to be accepted has not passed yet.”
“E... Est... Ester!”
Ester heard her name being called by a familiar voice. She opened her eyes and groaned from the pain in her limbs.
Ester saw Vincent trying to warn her about something with a worried tone. It took a moment for Ester to recall why she was on the ground. She was sent flying a couple of meters, and the damage her body was suffering from was because of the ground.
Ester moved her gaze to Bloody. A frown appeared on her face the moment she saw him walking confidently at a slightly hurried pace toward her.
Ester leaned upward while resisting the pain. She extended both her arms and moved her hands. Wind sigils appeared, and the wind started extending toward the two swords on the ground.
“Huh? What is happening to the swords?” Ester frowned.