Chapter 55: Duel I

Chapter 55: Chapter 55: Duel I

*THUD!*

The damp forest loam exploded around Eric’s ears as his spine slammed violently into the exposed roots, the jagged, icy edge of a serrated steel dagger pressing firmly against his jugular. A heavy knee crushed down into his sternum, knocking the breath clean out of his lungs in a ragged gasp.

*Fuck... how did this happen?!*

***

Five minutes earlier.

High above the mist-laden canopy, Coal’s telepathic pulse had rippled across their shared soul tether with sharp, predatory intent.

*Coal, you spotted a target?*

*Caww.*

*A solitary examinee?* Eric’s interest had piqued immediately, his mind calculating the odds. *Let’s see if they’re within our weight class.*

Slipping between the twisted ironwood branches like a silent wraith, Eric had scaled a high vantage bough, parted the damp broadleaves, and peered down into a small, moonlit clearing forty paces ahead.

Standing beside a mossy granite boulder was a slender youth clad in form-fitting, emerald-trimmed leather armor. Perched comfortably upon his shoulder was a lithe, azure-furred vulpine with twin flowing tails and sharp, jade-tinted pupils that scanned the dark tree line.

Eric had focused his vision, channeling his diagnostic talent.

*Appraisal.*

│ Race: Human

│ Stage: Soldier | Level: 3 | Talent Rank: C

│ Contracted Beast: Windrunner Fox

│ Rank: D | Stage: Soldier | Level: 3

*Only one level above Coal and me,* Eric had calculated, feeling his pulse tick upward. *He’s isolated, and the level gap is narrow enough that total tactical ambush can shatter his footing. If we take him down with a synchronized pincer, his point stash will be massive.*

Eric had glanced at the obsidian crow perched silently beside him on the bough. *Let’s test our edge, buddy. What do you think?*

*Caww.* Coal’s pitch-black eyes had flared with icy focus.

Riding the rising thermal updrafts, Coal had launched off the limb without rustling a single leaf, circling directly above the moonlit clearing while masked by the ink-black night.

Eric had dropped down to a lower branch, easing the pale-blue ivory edge of the *Wavecaller* from its sheath. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ

*Strike now!* Eric commanded through the soul link.

High above, Coal had triggered his Shadow Clone, sending four obsidian phantoms diving through the clouds like plunging spears to draw the vulpine’s gaze. Simultaneously, Eric had dropped from the bough, funneling a dense burst of liquid mana into his ankles.

*Shadow Steps!*

His silhouette had blurred across the clearing, closing thirty meters in the fraction of a second. The ivory serpent-bone edge of the *Wavecaller* had cleaved downward in a lethal, whistling arc aimed straight for the tamer’s exposed flank.

Yet, just as the edge came within inches of dark leather, the youth twisted with unnatural, fluid elasticity, bending backward at the waist like a willow branch swaying before a hurricane. The ivory blade sliced through empty air, whistling with wasted kinetic momentum.

A mocking sneer curled across the boy’s pale face.

"Ehhh? You really thought you could jump a wind-aspected tamer with clumsy footwork like that?"

*SHING!*

In a dazzling flash of steel, the youth whipped out a pair of curved twin trench daggers, emerald wind mana spiraling around the blades like miniature screaming vortexes.

He didn’t back away to reset, he lunged forward, stepping straight inside the dead zone of Eric’s guard.

*CLANG! CLANG! SPARKS!*

The clash was brutal, claustrophobic, and blindingly fast.

Eric swung the Wavecaller with disciplined, calculated strikes, his Minor mastery of Advanced Swordsmanship guiding every parry and counter-slash. But the difference in weapon geometry and raw cultivation baseline was punishing.

Against long straight swords, paired trench daggers reigned supreme in extreme close quarters.

Every time Eric tried to pivot and create spacing to swing his longer blade, the youth slipped beneath his elbows like an elusive gale, deflecting the Wavecaller with his left dagger while thrusting viciously with his right.

*CLANG—SHLICK!*

A stinging slash clipped Eric’s left forearm, slicing through the outer leather. Eric retaliated with a tight horizontal thrust, but the opponent pivoted on a dime, using the emerald wind mantle enveloping his boots to slip behind him.

A brutal roundhouse kick shattered Eric’s balance, followed instantly by an aggressive shoulder tackle that drove all his forward momentum backward.

*CRASH!*

Eric hit the forest floor hard, his grip jolted loose as his sword skittered across the wet roots out of reach. Before he could roll into an emergency recovery, the youth drove a heavy knee into his chest, pinning him flat into the mud while locking the serrated trench dagger against his exposed throat.

A few yards away, the clearing was chaos. Coal was locked in a fierce, high-speed aerial stalemate with the Windrunner Fox, its twin tails whipping razor-sharp gale gusts that effectively cordoned off the airspace, preventing Coal from diving down to assist his grounded partner.

"Transfer half your points if you want to walk out of here," the youth sneered, pressing the steel until a warm bead of red welled against Eric’s throat. "Refuse, and I’ll carve enough non-lethal tendon lacerations into your arms and thighs to keep you crawling in the dirt until the trial expires."

Eric gritted his teeth, thick veins bulging against his temples as he glared up into the boy’s smug eyes. The burning hum of his liquid mana surged violently against the walls of his Mana Heart.

"Eat shit!"

*Coal, now! Shadow Clones!* Eric roared through the soul bond.

In the sky, Coal broke away from the aerial dogfight, splitting instantly into four pitch-black duplicates that plummeted toward the human tamer’s face like screaming raptors.

"Wendy, shred them!" the youth barked without moving his dagger off Eric’s throat.

The Windrunner Fox snarled, its twin tails snapping forward as half a dozen crescent-shaped emerald windblades hissed through the air, accurately tearing through all four descending phantoms in clouds of dispersing dark mist.

*POP! POP! POP! POP!*

"Too easy—" the youth began, a triumphant smirk spreading across his lips.

He had forgotten the real Coal.

*Skystride!*

Having feinted beneath the windblades by detonating off an invisible pocket of compressed air, the genuine Coal emerged from the blind spot behind the youth’s skull at blinding velocity.

*Shadow Talons!*

*RIP!*

Coal’s pressurized, smoky talons raked savagely across the boy’s exposed shoulder and trapezius, tearing clean through the enchanted leather and carving deep, bloody trenches through dense muscle tissue.

"GAHHH!"

The youth shrieked in agonizing shock, his balance shattering as his dagger hand jerked involuntarily away from Eric’s throat.

Eric didn’t waste a microsecond.

With explosive kinetic fury, Eric coiled his core and drove a brutal, liquid-mana-infused bare fist straight up into the boy’s unprotected jaw.

*CRACK!*

The youth’s head snapped backward with an audible crunch of teeth. The sheer kinetic shockwave lifted him entirely off Eric’s chest, sending him tumbling across the wet moss in a dazed, uncoordinated heap.

Eric rolled to his feet, swept low across the soil to scoop up the Wavecaller from the tangled roots, and settled the ivory blade into a sharp, two-handed grip, his dark eyes blazing with icy, murderous intent.

He wiped the line of blood from his throat with his dark sleeve and leveled the glowing serpent-bone edge at his staggering foe.

"Time for round two, you arrogant bastard."