WOOSH—

    Yet another of Khyaal’s devastating swings sliced through the air, missing Leo by a hair’s breadth.

    *BAM*

    The sheer force of the missed strike sent out a shockwave, rattling Leo’s bones and forcing him to react instantly, as in the next fraction of a second, Leo activated [Blade Switch], vanishing from his spot and reappearing twenty meters away.

    Separation.

    That was what he needed at this moment, as he needed to soft reset the fight, to buy himself some much needed thinking time.

    ’Think, think, think—’ Leo urged his brain, as he barely had two seconds before Khyaal came charging again, and he needed a plan to face him again formulated in his head now!

    ’Well Vanish is off the table....’ Leo thought, as he realized that if Khyaal had access to [Full Vision], then chances were that his invisibility wouldn’t work on him, just like his [Mirror World] did not either.

    Making it pointless to waste precious mana on it.

    ’Mirror World is useless too.’ Leo mused, as Khyaal had already seen through it instantly.

    ’And then Kill Strike is prohibited— ’ Leo thought in frustration, as the fight rules forbade the use of killing moves..

    Which meant that, even if he did manage to land a clean hit, it would only get him disqualified.

    ’Which means the only skills I have left at my disposal now are [Full Counter], [ShadowBind]...

    And [Parallel Processing]...’ Leo thought, as he instantly scratched off parallel processing from that list too.

    Because using parallel processing for longer than 20 seconds would leave him completely crippled.

    ’Fuck I’m screwed—’ Leo realized, as his jaw tightened.

    The reality of the fight was sinking in fast.

    Khyaal had forced him into a corner where most of his core skills were completely useless.

    And in a battle where his opponent had three times his strength, nearly his speed, and superior endurance—

    Leo’s only chance of victory...

    Was to fight smart.

    To fight dirty—

    And to bait his opponent into making a mistake that he could exploit.

    Hence, he decided to get creative.

    "Stop running away from me, bunny—" Khyaal said, as he came charging towards Leo yet again, however, as he moved towards Leo this time, Leo did something unconventional.

    Instead of using [ShadowBind] to restrain his opponent, he used it to create inverted ’U’ shaped foot traps, all across the battlefield, in hopes of tripping Khyaal, should he step into one of them.

    And step he did!

    As on his mad dash towards Leo, he accidentally put his leg in one of the traps, tripping face first, which gave Leo the opening he needed.

    *SHUA*

    *SHUA*

    *SHUA*

    Leo released three daggers back to back towards Khyaal, all of which got embedded cleanly in his back, helping Leo draw the first blood.

    *CHEEERS*

    A rapturous cheer erupted from the crowd when the underdog finally landed a hit, as almost no-one saw this development coming.

    Had this been a street fight, where Leo would have had his daggers laced with poison, then this would have been it for Khyaal, who would have lost his life to the neuro-toxins.

    And at that moment, regret bloomed deep within his chest.

    Because for the first time, he truly felt the consequences of his one-sided fighting style.

    ’Man... I wish I had a more balanced skill set...’

    If he did—

    He wouldn’t be in this situation.

    He wouldn’t be completely defenseless.

    He wouldn’t have to brace himself for the pure agony that was about to rip through his body.

    But—

    It was too late for regrets.

    BOOM!

    The slash struck him like a thousand blades slicing through the air at once.

    Leo barely had time to shield his vitals, crossing his arms over his chest and twisting his body at the last second to minimize the damage.

    But it wasn’t enough.

    His world exploded into pure, searing pain.

    Shing! Shing! Shing!

    A thousand invisible blades carved into his skin.

    His robe shredded.

    His flesh burned.

    Blood sprayed into the air in thin, crimson arcs as gashes and lacerations tore across his arms, legs, and torso.

    The force of the attack sent him flying backward, slamming into the ground and skidding across the battlefield, leaving a trail of blood in his wake.

    THUD!

    When he finally came to a stop, his vision swam, black spots dancing at the edges of his consciousness.

    His breathing was ragged.

    His entire body felt like it had been flayed open.

    Pain.

    Pain.

    So much fucking pain.

    His fingers dug into the ground as he gritted his teeth, forcing himself not to scream.

    But god—

    Did he want to.

    His body was trembling, his muscles screaming in agony, but—

    He was still alive. Find exclusive stories on novelhall.Co?m

    And that was pretty much it.

    Slowly—agonizingly—he pushed himself up, blood dripping from his arms and staining the ground beneath him as he could feel every single wound, every cut, every tear in his skin.

    "Wow.... That was something," he mused, as he could taste the iron in his mouth, a bitter smile curling on his lips, as he saw Khyaal tower over him, yet again.

    "It’s over, little bunny—" Khyaal said, as he brought down a powerful blow, fully expecting Leo to be defenceless against it.