Illogically enough, receiving a severe wound, namely a hole in his abdomen, which was currently pissing blood without showing any signs of stopping, somehow caused Xiao to grow sharper and faster. He swiftly approached Edrick, dancing and weaving as the rapier lashed out, whistling past his face and ears, slashing bits of brown hair with every thrust. He even managed to duck as Anoteros unexpectedly followed the thrusts with rapid slashes.

The short distance between blade and target, as well as the fact that his long arm was already extended, meant that the follow-up slashes were many times weaker than the rest of his attacks. But although a stabbing weapon first and foremost, a rapier still had a razor-sharp edge as well. One mistake, and Xiao could very well end up with a gash in his jugular.

But the protagonist held off, managing to evade every strike before managing to slam the pommel of his blade into Edrick’s wrist, delaying the next rapier strike, and giving himself time to further close the distance. Naturally, the noble scion’s other hand came swinging, wrapped in the cape that usually stayed upon his shoulders. To be frank, Xiao had never seen or heard of this way of fighting before.

However, being currently incredibly focused, his natural constitution as a Chen was working wonders. It was as if the very cells of his body had access to the memories of the previous generations, as he somehow earned an understanding of what Destreza was about, prompting him to rethink his strategy.

He had been planning on using the momentum of Edrick’s swing to slash at his wrist or forearm, basically placing the tip of his sword just barely in the way of the attack, and making use of the opponent’s own momentum to leave a deep wound.

But now knowing that the cape would certainly protect him, and that what was likely to happen was just for his blade to be caught and pulled aside, he instead executed a simple dodge, landing a slash upon Edrick’s left thigh. Just before having to step back in a hurry, the rapier nearly slicing across the entirety of his face.

Xiao involuntarily stumbled back and realised that he was on the edge of the arena, a cold sweat running across his spine as he nearly lost balance. That momentary instant of shock caused him to botch his next attempt at evading an attack, ending up with him getting stabbed by the rapier in the left shoulder. He immediately moved away and made some distance between himself and Anoteros once more.

The protagonist was breathing heavily, feeling some strain on his lungs, heart beating wildly in his chest. The exhilaration of a good fight was pouring adrenaline throughout his body, dulling the pain of his injuries. But it did not cause him to lose his wits. He had landed two strikes on the noble scion, though both were rather shallow wounds... Or rather, Edrick was just such a big guy that the cuts barely affected him.

Truly, it was hard for Xiao to gauge properly, as Anoteros was never dressed in any sort of tight-fitting clothing, not even close to that, but he was indeed muscular as hell, very condensed yet rather voluminous nonetheless, as could be expected from a man taller than two meters in height.

The young Elt was not letting any emotion peer through, wearing a perfect poker face, not even showing a hint of tiredness. Xiao was certain that he had expended himself a fair bit, especially considering the sort of feats he pulled back to back. A longbow was far from easy to pull repeatedly like that. Archers needed some powerful arms to handle bows, especially large bows like this one…

Edrick had emptied his quiver in a short amount of time before swiftly following up with repeated rapier thrusts. That weapon was also rather tiring to use, it wasn’t the small thing Xiao would often see in movies. This was the real deal, heavy like a longsword and awfully long, without even accounting for the fact that everything Edrick wielded was a fair bit larger in all aspects. Wielding a rapier like that was far from being simple.

But the noble scion was unreadable, assuming a combat stance and swiftly charging right at Xiao once more. He used the cape upon his left arm to confuse his opponents before swiftly throwing it right at him. The cape flew through the air in a way that was entirely illogical for such an item.

He still managed to move, but as it touched his body, it stuck to him as though covered in glue. Not only that, but it revealed itself to be heavy as well, completely killing any momentum he had and making him no better than a sitting duck for the next few seconds.

‘Crap! This technique definitely isn’t a simple one… How the hell did he cultivate to such a good degree? Doesn’t he have at least a body cultivation technique and one other weapon cultivation technique to train as well?!’ Xiao was not privy to the details of what Anoteros was training in, so he only knew about the fact that he possessed Mountain Sasquatch Body, as it was mentioned that it was how he had discovered the beast that had granted him his bloodline. And obviously, Oni Smash, as it could be the only technique that granted him his earthshaking ability.

Little did he know that Edrick cultivated even more techniques than that, and had good achievements in pretty much all of them. He had assumed that the noble scion would have a lot of natural talent, but to that extent, it would be outrageous to think about.

With a single swift motion, Edrick took the occasion before him and landed a wide slash across Xiao’s torso, hitting him in the head with a high kick, temple against tibia, turning everything hazy for the protagonist.

Seeing his adversary’s dazed state, Edrick sheathed his rapier and moved in, picking Xiao up and simply launching him across the arena.

Although the arena for the final was a bit larger than those before, it was still a rather small space overall. Throwing a stunned Xiao out of bounds was not a challenge. The crimson-eyed youth was already soaring through the air, everyone staring at his figure with wide eyes, expecting his imminent loss.

The youth shook off his daze and understood his current predicament.

With very little time left before he went out of the arena and subsequently lost, he thought of trying something- Edrick had been rather nice with him, as he could have just knocked the hell out of him instead of tossing him…

Remembering how ‘projectiles’ were not allowed to pass through the barrier... So Xiao threw his sword forward before getting out of bounds, crashing against the sword as it was stopped by the barrier.

The impact and subsequent fall were anything but graceful. In layman’s terms, he ate shit, but he was still in the arena.

‘Wait a minute…’ he had not thought what to do after that. Anoteros was still right there, and it wasn’t like he would just walk out of the arena out of respect for the stunt Xiao had just pulled.

‘Well… At least that cape came off after I was sent flying, that’s one less weapon for him…’ Xiao almost wanted to curse himself out loud as he saw Edrick casually unsheath his rapier once more, and grab hold of his whip with his left hand, dual-wielding the two very different weapons.

Edrick just stood there, spinning his rapier three times counterclockwise for some reason before beginning to walk toward Xiao. The protagonist stepped forward again, starting to feel searing pain radiating from his injuries as the adrenaline was wearing off.

He stepped right to avoid a thrust of the rapier and- Got stabbed right in his guts anyway.

“Huh?”

“Nice fight, Xiao”

And then, he got struck right in the face, blacking out on the spot.