Chapter 3916: Semi-Final Battle

Just as Alex returned to a neutral position, the man swung his staff sideways, as though trying to strike Alex’s head had he been right before him. However, there was no Staff Aura in that attack. No Staff Qi. Not even Staff Intent.

However, the man had indeed used a serious attack.

Just as he swung his staff, something appeared beside Alex. He noticed the light out of the corner of his eye. He reacted before he even saw what it was and ended up striking at something that had come for his head.

Alex destroyed the attack, and within the destroyed attack, he saw remnants of Staff Qi turning into motes of light before vanishing.

Alex stared at the light for a few long seconds, at first very confused about how the man had attacked without releasing a single attack. However, it didn’t take him long to understand the truth at all.

When he did, he turned toward the man.

He couldn’t voice it out loud, but he spoke the truth in his heart.

Staff Heart.

The man was using Staff Heart.

It hadn’t fully formed just yet, and it felt as though the man was still a long distance away from ever completing it, but this was the beginning of him forming his Staff Heart. He had overcome the hurdle of imagining his staff as something not related to himself. So what remained would only take him time rather than effort.

The man looked surprised that Alex had stopped the attack. It was clear that he had expected it to go unnoticed, but that hadn’t been the case at all.

He held a frown, but he wasted no time and struck out again. Alex’s eyes immediately searched around and found an attack that came from his right side again.

He stopped it instantly.

Just as he finished there, the man swung his staff the other way around, and the Staff Qi formed on Alex’s left side now.

He stopped that as well.

The man grunted a little, angry that Alex was successfully catching on to his attacks, but he didn’t stop.

Left and right, up and down.

He caused Staff Qi to form in all directions, attacking Alex.

Alex stopped the attack each time it came for him, but as it went on, a question kept popping up in his head.

Why was the man telegraphing his attacks?

Was he pulling Alex into a lull where he would think that the attack would come from the telegraphed direction each time and get caught off guard when it didn’t?

If that was the case, then he was wasting a little too much time doing this, and certainly no small amount of his mental energy.

If that was not the case, then the only truth that remained was that the man had to telegraph the attack.

’I see,’ Alex thought as he came to an understanding.

The man was a novice when it came to Staff Heart and didn’t have control over the Staff Qi that formed from it either. Or if he did, it wasn’t that strong.

The reason for that was that his Intent itself wasn’t all that strong.

One of the things that helped when using weaker Intent was to visualize the attack, which became far easier when one acted it out.

A person didn’t need to wave their hands around to manipulate their Qi, but doing so made it easier to visualize the Qi moving, thus making it less intensive on their Intent to make it happen.

The man was doing the same by waving his staff around, giving his mind a visual cue for when and where the Staff Qi had to form and how it had to move.

If the man had trained a little more on that front, perhaps he would have had an easier time with the fight, but as he was, Alex could tell he was not winning.

The final fight would take place after this, so Alex could not afford to use up any more of his mental energy in this fight.

So he dashed forward, hoping to end it soon.

The man realized his Staff Heart wasn’t working, so he quickly formed his Staff Domain again and prepared to fight the normal way.

However, Alex had no intention of dragging out this battle any longer.

He used Sword Heart Breaker right from the start and swung at the man.

The man retaliated in time to stop his attack, but Alex didn’t stop. He swung again, this time at a slightly different angle.

The man tried to return an attack, but he barely made it in time and was disoriented by the resulting shockwave. He had barely gathered himself when Alex arrived before him again and swung his sword a third time.

This time, the man was far too late.

The attack landed on him before he could strike back, causing a massive wound on his right side while, at the same time, striking him hard enough to send him flying across the arena.

He slid a short distance before stopping. He nearly hit the barrier, but managed to regain control of himself.

Alex dashed right back to finish the job, but before he could, the man let go of his staff.

"I give up!"

Alex stopped.

"I concede. Don’t attack."

The referee took a second longer to realize the battle had ended and quickly arrived before Alex could attack again. At the same time, he announced the end of the battle and Alex’s victory.

Alex walked out of the arena to a crowd that cheered for him wildly.

Many of them had realized that Alex was only an Immortal, so in many people’s eyes, he was the perfect dark horse to bet on.

Alex smiled at the crowd and walked back toward his seat.

He wouldn’t be given much time to rest before the finals, but he still had to do so.

However, when he arrived at his seat, he saw that someone was already sitting there.

It was the Fire Sage.