Novel Full Chapter 347: Talent And Defiance [V]
Chapter 347: Talent And Defiance [V]
Any type of immediate precognition was a direct counter to Juliana’s power.
Because she relied heavily on quick feints and treacherous misdirections to overwhelm strong opponents, her efforts were rendered useless against someone who could see through the deception.
Still, Michael’s reactions weren’t as fast as she had feared.
Having already taken a direct hit from one of Ray’s lances, he was lagging. The exhaustion of the battle was finally catching up to him.
His Essence reserves still remained inexhaustible, yes — since the God Who EatsIs was constantly supplying him with fuel — but he was physically reaching its absolute limit.
Yet, credit where it was due — he was still moving with enough efficiency to not only parry and deflect but also actively counterattack.
Truly, he was a monster in a league of his own.
Clang! Clang! Clang—!!
The ringing of metal reverberated through the otherwise silent forest.
The beasts previously occupying this territory had long since fled when the God’s presence was first unleashed.
Every time their weapons met, the resulting shockwaves rocked the nearby trees. Both fighters were a zipping blur, going all-in with the intent to kill.
Michael was slower, but he made up for it with his surgical precision.
Juliana, on the other hand, fully utilized her superior speed and agility.
She knew if she could only widen the gap between his sight and his movements by a fraction of a second, the fight would be over with her blade to his heart.
She subjected him to a relentless assault of her twin blades, with attacks that were as deceitful as they were fast.
One moment she was charging head-on, the next she would rewind the time of her own body, swiveling around him for a backstab.
One second she was mid-air, seemingly about to be impaled by his longsword, only to flicker out of sight and reappear to his left, aiming for the vulnerable gap in his flank.
It was frustrating to deal with her.
But more frustrating was the fact how easily Michael answered her strikes.
Still, as the number of their exchanges kept dragging on and beads of cold sweat began to drip down her forehead, Juliana felt the katana and wakizashi in her hands growing lighter and lighter.
The more they fought, the more wounds they both accumulated. None of them were anything serious — just some shallow scrapes and scratches.
But every single drop of blood, no matter how tiny, that fell from Michael only worked in Juliana’s favor, enhancing the ferocity of damage done by her sharp blades little by little.
Why? Because of one of the Cards she had equipped:
[Bleeding Edge
– Effect: Temporarily coats the user’s weapon with energy that causes additional bleeding damage.]
Samael had given it to her when he woke up.
She didn’t know why, but it was proving invaluable.
The more wounds her swords carved open, the more they seemed to possess a mind of their own — a mind solely focused on finding the enemy and making them bleed.
The fight from here on out was just going to be formality. Juliana would continue getting faster while Michael would just slow down until he was put down.
It’s over. I win— she began to think, but that thought was interrupted. Wh-What?!
Michael suddenly changed not only his conduct but his entire temperament.
He abandoned his precise, calculated slashes in favor of raw savagery. Instead of focusing on defense, parries, and blocks, he adopted a wide-swinging style that left his entire guard open.
Caught by surprise, Juliana had no time to alter her momentum. She had been banking on his caution, on the meticulous way he was using his future sight to shut down her feints.
But by throwing away his guard, Michael had effectively rendered her misdirections moot.
You cannot feint against someone who refuses to acknowledge the threat of a strike, after all.
Her slender katana met his brutal longsword and was battered down, its dull edge pressed hard against her own shoulder.
She thrust her wakizashi forward, stabbing Michael in the shoulder… but the boy didn’t care in the least.
Instead of flinching, he followed through with his swing and flung Juliana back as if she weighed nothing.
What the hell?! she screamed internally, crashing against a solid tree trunk, plowing through a patch of ferns, and rolling down a steep slope into a hidden meadow.
She coughed into the dirt before quickly rising. The grass and flowers here were as tall as she was, acting as natural curtains to hide the movements of her pursuer.
…But Michael wasn’t pursuing her with stealth anymore.
The meadow groaned as he landed with enough force to flatten the flora in a wide radius.
He looked less like a swordsman and more like a wounded predator. Blood from the puncture wound in his shoulder streamed down his mangled right arm, but he paid it no mind as he rushed forward.
Juliana met him, increasing her speed severalfold.
CLANG—!!
This time when their swords clashed, the shockwaves were so sharp they cut down the tall grass around them.
The meadow, once swaying with an abundance of greenery, was being systematically harvested by the sheer pressure of their collision.
Juliana felt her heart hammering against her ribs.
This wasn’t a duel anymore. It was a meat grinder!
Every time she rewound her position to strike from a blind spot, Michael was already there, swinging with a reckless abandon that forced her to abandon her own offense just to keep her limbs attached.
He was no longer trying to outthink her.
He didn’t care about getting hurt, so long as he kept the injuries from being fatal.
He was simply out-existing her.
As long as she was in more pain than him, he was good with it.
This style of animalistic fighting reminded her so much of Samael.
He’s burning out, she realized, parrying a blow that sent a numbing vibration up to her elbows. He has to be! No human body can sustain this!
Her weapons still felt weightless, moving almost faster than her own thoughts, guided by a thirst for that monster’s blood.
That was when she saw an opening.
Michael pulled back for another heavy haymaker, his chest heave-hoing.
Juliana seized that chance to blink to his exposed side, planting her shorter blade directly into his ribs.
KALCH—!!
…It didn’t feel right.
The blade plunged deep… but not deep enough.
She was aiming to pierce his liver, but the wakizashi stopped just short of it, wedged into his muscle and ribcage even though she had applied enough force to shatter bone.
Panicking, she tried to retrieve her blade and back the fuck off from there… only to find it wouldn’t budge.
Her blade… wouldn’t…budge.
…Oh. She had a realization. It was a trap.
Michael had used Essence to harden his muscles and his bones. Then, he intentionally invited her in to strike him there.
By doing so, he had essentially turned his own body into a living trap.
That realization was late.
Because in the next second, Michael brought up his sword, twirled it once overhead, then twisted his torso and whipped his heavy blade toward the short sword still stuck in the side of his ribs.
CRACK—!!
Her wakizashi snapped under the unbearable pressure. The tip remained buried in his flesh while the rest of the steel flew into the tall grass.
Juliana stumbled back, the hilt of her broken sword still in her hand.
But Michael wasn’t done. He switched his sword to a reverse grip and finished the combo by bashing the pommel of his longsword into her nose.
THWACK—!!