Game’s Dogma

Although Tripurity couldn’t come up with an answer, he didn’t have the leisure of thinking any further because Danting was already charging at him again.

“Such a stingy guy, won’t even answer a question.” Danting curled his lips while rushing in with his sword pointed forwards. A dark glow gathered on its tip and blasted a bolt of dark thunder across the ten metres between them.

“Level 23 Magic Swordsman skill, Instant Thunder: Infuse the power of lightning magic into a thrust. A short-range dash and attack skill.”

Clang! Tripurity staggered backwards as he parried the incoming attacks with his wooden sword. Danting kept on pressuring him with attacks once he was within melee range, slashing his glossy black sword that radiated sword auras.

It was the effect of his passive skill, Mana Charge. By infusing mana into his sword, every attack would deal additional magic damage and create a burst of mana at a short distance.

Drako Yau had never taught Danting any particular swordsmanship and allowed him to display his creativity. It was easy to learn a technique but difficult to master the mindset behind it. A thousand practice swings might be enough to achieve the former, while the latter took a lot more than that.

If Zephyrwolf’s style was feral wildness, then Danting’s was one that emphasised precision and freestyle. Every swing of his sword was at the perfect distance and aimed at the perfect spot as if he was measuring everything with a ruler. It wasn’t a distinct style, but his precision often gave him a slight advantage when crossing swords with an enemy.

Over time, slight advantages added up to become an overwhelming one. This was why Danting was rarely caught in an underdog position despite not having explosive damage that could end fights instantly. His style was strict and loose; strict because of his precision and timing in both defence and offence, loose because of his boundless creativity that took his enemies by surprise.

Sir Duen and Sir Hui both nodded in acknowledgement.

“Look at that young child. Despite his age, his sword is as calm as a grandmaster. Brother, look…”

“Let’s wait and see,” Sir Duen said as he shook his head. He then scanned the players with stoic eyes. “We cannot be hasty when it involves our inheritances.”

Sir Hui nodded and stayed silent.

“Don’t look down on me!”

Tripurity also felt that the match was slowly but surely leaning towards Danting. When both sides had comparable strength, Danting’s advantage would only increase over time as the battle dragged on.

Knowing this couldn’t go on, Tripurity finally waited long enough for him to cast Mystical Swords again. He had taken a great risk by using Swordsplosion just now due to Mystical Swords’ fairly long cooldown; he never expected Danting to survive the blast and ended up at a massive disadvantage. Now that the cooldown was over, Tripurity’s wait was over—his thirty-six swords immediately swarmed Danting like a group of swordmasters.

Danting only got more excited by the fight’s increased difficulty. He was the type to fight better under greater pressure and would never falter before the enemy. As his sword blasted wave after wave of energy with Mana Charge, the thirty-six swords couldn’t penetrate his defence.

Tripurity gritted his teeth in dismay. If that’s the case, let’s finish this quickly! His hands flashed as he made another mudra that recalled all his swords back to him. They lined up neatly behind him in a single row, their tips all pointed towards the sky.

Level 30 Taoist skill, Dragon Binding Sword!

“Swiftly!”

Pzzt! The swords formed a dragon in the sky and dove at Danting.

“Yeah, that’s more like it!” A dark purple aura as dark as ink suddenly shrouded Danting. He faced the dragon of swords and parried them one after another.

The greatest difference between magic swordsmen and weaponmasters or berserkers was the passive skill Mana Charge. Under its effects, magic swordsmen could attack and parry with much more force than any other warrior class. Of course, weaponmasters were better at chaining endless skills while berserkers had greater destructive power with Blood Ritual skills; each class simply had something they excelled at.

Dragon Binding Sword utilised the flying swords’ advantage of flight to stack them up and build momentum for the final blow. In other words, the final attack was the most devastating one.

Before they knew it, Danting had already parried thirty-five swords.

“Die!”

The last sword was gleaming in a crimson glow that resembled a dragon. It cut through the air towards Danting along with Tripurity’s thundering growl. The last sword was the wooden sword itself, the most powerful strike of Dragon Binding Swords. It was also the most destructive single-target Taoist skill as the Level 40 skill was dealt area-of-effect damage.

Danting’s hands had turned numb from parrying over thirty swords, yet that only fanned his exhilaration even further. He’s strong! But I’ve met even stronger ones in Fatty’s arena! The dark purple aura was so dense that it appeared to be a liquid. Behind him, a purple magic array was quickly taking shape.

“Level 35 Magic Swordsman skill, Array of Vengeance: Inflict damage on the enemy after taking damage or parrying an attack. Damage dealt is proportional to the damage received or the number of consecutive parries.”

Danting faced the approaching dragon with an open palm. Absorbing every spark of light from the magic array behind him, he roared, “Tear it apart!”

Space and time seemed to have frozen for a split second—BOOM!!!!!!

A pillar of black that could shatter the world shot past Danting from behind. The dragon crashed into the black beam, rattling everyone’s eardrums violently. Both dragon and beam didn’t concede to one another, and the ground was torn apart by their battle of strength.

Sir Hui had to intervene again, this time with a bit more effort. A wave of his hand conjured another invisible barrier that enveloped the sparring ground.

As the black beam and the dragon continued to tear one another apart, sparks of white erupted from where they collided. The whiteness gradually shone brighter until it overtook both dragon and beam and consumed them. 

“Puk!”

“Guh!”

Tripurity and Danting both shot backwards and tumbled to the trembling ground with blood dripping from their mouths—it ended up as a draw!

“Dan!” Zephyrwolf ran to Danting to check on him.

Thankfully, the young man was dumb enough to look at Zephyrwolf with a satisfied smile. “Uncle Zeph! This is awesome! He’s strong!”

Zephyrwolf felt exasperated despite admiring Danting’s optimism. He knocked Danting’s head and said, “You idiot! Aren’t you Level 40? Why didn’t you put on the Level 40 set? You didn’t use the Divine Martial Sword’s active skill too! What on earth were you thinking?”

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