Child of Destiny

……

Shin and Randel stood at the center of the training, standing opposite each other.

Shin wielded the training katana that he had taken from the weapon rack at the edge of the training room, which also happened to have a corresponding sheath as well.

He was planning to take this sparring more seriously. He could sense that his particular senior was extremely powerful. He might be even stronger than Dayna to a certain extent.

However, it was in terms of physical strength and other material features. After all, Dayna’s abilities were special, particularly her ‘Spirit Speech’, which was something that Shin had never seen from anywhere else.

Given his understanding of the Research Department, everyone here had their unique abilities and came from different kinds of disciplines. He had even heard that some of them were proficient in ancient techniques and scriptures from Buddhism, Taoism, and such.

Following this thought, he was sure that there was something special about this senior as well. He might have unique features or a special discipline.

Opposite to him, he saw Randel carry a round shield and a saber in each of his hands. He could also sense the sudden change of demeanor from the opposing side, which also somewhat gave him heavy pressure.

Such pressure made Shin squint his eyes narrowly, especially after sensing that it was quite heavy even for himself.

It was as if the entire place was suddenly subjected to an extremely powerful gravitational force that made him extremely uncomfortable. This also made his movements somewhat sluggish, affecting his overall performance.

“Such a scary pressure,” he mumbled with a grim expression on his face.

He had already faced multiple people with powerful pressure, including the old monsters that were training him. Then there were also geniuses on Shiella and David’s level, who could also give him a different kind of pressure.

However, the pressure that he was currently getting from Randel was somewhat special. It might not be as horrifying as the old monsters that he had encountered, but it was much stronger when compared to Shiella and David’s, which somewhat surprised him.

Randel grinned widely when he saw that Shin was standing well despite actively releasing such a powerful pressure. “Very promising indeed. To think that you can withstand this level of pressure from me.”

“Then, let’s see if you can move as freely as a well!” he said before suddenly kicking the ground and charging straight at Shin.

Boom!

His burst speed was much faster than he looked, almost reaching Shin within an instant.

Swoosh!

“So fast?” Shin was somewhat taken aback by how fast Randel was.

Regardless, he still responded with ease, hopping backwards while maintaining his sword-drawing stance midair.

He slightly adjusted his posture in the air for a moment while closely watching the movements of his opponent, trying to see if he could fish any response from the latter.

However, Randel seemed to have seen through his intention and smirked, not letting himself be lured by such obvious bait.

Click!

However, his smirk suddenly stiffened when he heard a subtle sound ringing from the separation of Shin’s sword and its sheath.

‘Jade Kirin Scripture: Quick Draw – Flash Horizon’

Shing!

Randel, who was currently charging at Shin at full force, was unable to stop himself from going forward and meeting the incoming sword flash.

However, he was still able to raise his shield in time to block it.

Bang!

He was planning to continue with the chase after blocking this attack. But he was surprised that such a quick attack carried an extremely heavy force, catching him a bit off guard.

He was forced to briefly pause his advance due to this attack, killing off his initial tempo altogether.

“Interesting~!” mumbled Randel as his lips curved into an excited smile.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

A moment later, his body started swaying left and right, creating a certain rhythm that tried to mess with Shin’s eyes.

From Shin’s perspective, Randel seemed to be fading out of existence with this particular set of movements.

He was already having a hard time keeping track of Randel because of his strange, stealthy technique. So, when he saw Randle do this series of moments, he was starting to keep losing track of the latter completely.

However, instead of feeling troubled by the current situation, Shin could not help but feel excited instead.

“I can also do that,” he said while doing his best to keep some distance between him and Randel.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Just like the opposing party, Shin started swaying his body left and right, but in a different rhythm.

He paused from time to time, making his figure linger in that direction for a moment before suddenly moving toward the other direction at an extremely fast speed.

If Randel’s movement technique fully utilized his fading existence, making his opponent lose track of him, then Shin’s set of movements created a series of afterimages that confused the latter.

Shin had also utilized his techniques from the ‘Heavenly Black Tortoise Method’ of the ‘Four Symbol Scripture’ to create a few illusions that further confuse his opponents.

These realistic illusions even made Randel lose track of Shin’s true body from time to time.

This was Shin’s attempt to re-create the ‘Phantom Series’ in the real world. Albeit being unpolished, it was still quite an advanced technique given Shin’s current achievement in mentalism and his experience within the game.

‘Phantom Series: Movement Technique – Spectral Waltz’

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

A cat-and-mouse game between the two continued.

There were not many direct exchanges between them due to the techniques that they were using, but the intensity of their battle was still quite high.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Bang!

Clang! Clang!

The exchanges between the two started to ramp up as they started to gain more understanding of each other.

Randel was mainly chasing after Shin while blocking some of the sneaky counterattacks thrown by the latter from time to time.

He was closely observing this junior, trying to see the depths that the latter had. Unfortunately, he could tell that Professor Henry must put some restrictions on Shin, trying to re-create the conditions within the game.

After all, that was mostly the reason for this sparring match.

He had not gotten any instructions from the professor up until now, especially when he was meant to explode with his power while making sure to keep his killing intent.

This was most likely for him to satisfy his curiosity about this junior and his hunger for battle, particularly against such geniuses.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

After a while, Randel started changing his style and approach for the battle. He started getting aggressive, putting more pressure on Shin with his continuous attacks.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Shin was starting to feel this pressure as well, particularly when Randel became crazy with his offense.

“Aggressive like a fire, but cold as water” – this was the phrase that entered Shin’s mind after seeing how Randel fought.

Moreover, he could also see hints of principles of Yin and Yang or Taichi from his senior’s style.

When Randel was on offense, Shin felt like being bombarded by powerful attacks that felt like a rain of meteors descending from the sky.

Each strike from Randel was extremely heavy, giving him a lot of trouble to endure. This forced him to be constantly in retreat, shuffling between multiple movement techniques under his arsenal.

He took advantage of this pressure to further polish his imitation of ‘Phantom Series’ here in the real world while also integrating it with his overall style.

On the other hand, when Shin tried to counterattack and put pressure on Randel in return, the latter started absorbing everything with ease.

Shin even felt like being subjected to an intense whirlpool that was constantly and strongly pulling him toward it.

He was being swept by the rhythm of his opponent during these instances, which forced him to disengage from time to time to avoid being pulled into that abyss.

This put Shin in an extremely strange situation.

Whenever he tried to retreat, Randel would just give him a relentless pursuit, where he would also continuously bombard him with those powerful attacks in every exchange. Shin would be clearly on the losing end due to the difference in strength, which only made him retreat further.

If he chose to face the latter head-on, then Randel would just welcome it with open arms, using that extremely sturdy defense and pulling him toward their tempo. This put him at a disadvantage as well since the latter would only control the entire battle at that point.

Choosing the hit-and-run tactic would not work as well, since Randel would only use that strange technique to constantly fade out of his senses, giving him a lot of trouble. The latter could also launch a series of counterattacks whenever he failed his ambushes.

From Shin’s perspective, Randel felt like a perfect fighter who did not have any flaws. He excelled in all kinds of styles that covered all his weaknesses.

Shin could not find any opening at all, giving him the impression that the opposing party was unbeatable.

This further gave him another pressure.

“Senior Brother gives me the impression that I am constantly under close observation, where all my flaws and weaknesses are slowly being exposed, because of his style and those Enlightened Eyes.”

“He will then constantly improve and adjust his style accordingly. Even using the variety of tricks that he has under his sleeves whenever they are needed,” he mumbled, comparing David and Randel.

“On the other hand, Senior Randel gives me the impression that he is an unbeatable existence due to his lack of flaws,” he added in silence while constantly retreating.

He now understood how powerful this graduating senior was.

…