Book 9, His Fame Shakes the World – Chapter 6, The Duel
Both the Emperor Johann as well as the War God’s disciple, Kenyon, immediately stood up, smiling as they greeted Haydson. Haydson acted in a very friendly manner, greeting Emperor Johann and Kenyon as well.
The three judges sat down.
Behind the judges, there were many seats as well, all taken. These people primarily consisted of the likes of the Empress, the imperial consorts, the princes, and the princesses.
“Nina.” Wharton saw that Nina was in that crowd of people.
Nina saw Wharton as well. Over the past few days, the Emperor had restricted her from leaving the palace, so Wharton and Nina hadn’t seen each other in over a month. Given the depths of their affection for each other, even three days without seeing each other would feel like three years. These thirty days of not seeing each other had been very arduous indeed.
Wharton and Nina exchanged glances. They could sense from each other’s gazes the love and affection each bore the other.
“Hrmph.” Seeing this, Blumer couldn’t help but snort coldly. An ordinary person might not have been able to see this clearly from a distance of hundreds of meters, but Blumer’s vision was simply too good. He could clearly see the look in these two people’s eyes.
Sometimes, having good eyesight wasn’t necessarily a good thing.
The silver-haired old man looked at the Emperor and at the judges. Emperor Johann nodded, and the silver-haired old man laughed. In a sonorous voice, he said, “Everyone, please be quiet. The duel between the two geniuses of the O’Brien Empire is about to start. First, introducing the challenger, the personal disciple of the War God...Blumer!”
The challenger was the first to be announced, while the challenged was the second to be announced. This was the rule.
Carrying a long sword on his back, and dressed in a blue warrior’s outfit, Blumer flew several dozen meters into the air, arriving onto the dueling platform.
“BLUMER!”
“BLUMER!”
Many of the 80,000 onlookers began to chant loudly. Clearly, many supporters of Blumer were here today. In the hearts of many people, Blumer’s older brother, Olivier, was the pride of the O’Brien Empire.
“Quiet.” The silver-haired old man smiled. “Next is Wharton, of the Dragonblood Warrior clan.”
“Rumble...” Tearing off his upper body clothes, Wharton bared his torso, revealing his explosively muscular chest, causing many viewers to roar in excitement.
“Hrmph.” Seeing this, Blumer only let out a cold, contemptuous sneer.
Taking the warblade ‘Slaughterer’ in his hands, Wharton leapt directly onto the dueling platform. Given Wharton’s 2.2 meter tall stature, and with that massive warblade in his hands, and his bare upper body...
Wharton emanated a simply heroic aura.
Heroic!
This sort of heroic aura caused many people to begin joyful chants. “WHARTON!” “WHARTON!” These chants began to erupt as well, and these supporters were not any fewer in number than Blumer’s.
“What is so impressive about Blumer, that he was able to become the personal disciple of the War God? Today, everyone shall find out.” The silver-haired old man said sonorously. “As for the legendary Dragonblood Warriors, acclaimed as Supreme Warriors, today, everyone will have a chance to witness them in action as well.”
“I now announce...”
The silver-haired old man’s voice went up in pitch. “This duel has commenced!”
In the blink of an eye, Wharton’s body was covered with azure draconic scales. A draconic horn sprouted forth from his forehead, and that blue draconic tail came out as well. The entire dueling platform began to tremble. Beneath the light of the sun, those azure-blue draconic scales radiated a dazzling glare.
“Ooooooo.”
A collective noise of surprise could be heard from the onlookers. None of the people present had seen the Dragonform transformation. This transformation of Wharton’s had totally stunned the watchers.
But after being momentarily stunned, everyone burst into wild cheers of joy.
“Dragonblood Warrior?” All three of the judges watched with their eyes lit up. Haydson looked at Wharton with interest. “It would be wonderful if he was at the Saint-level.”
The legendary Saint-level Dragonblood Warriors were experts even amongst the Saint-levels.
And he himself, the Monolithic Sword Saint Haydson, was an expert amongst the Saint-levels. It had been a long time since Haydson had tasted defeat. But yet if he were to challenge a Deity-level combatant, he would definitely lose. Against that sort of overwhelming force, there was nothing Haydson could do either.
He truly hoped that there would appear a Saint-level combatant capable of defeating him.
Perhaps, he would gain some insights and suddenly break through to the next level, reaching the Deity-level.
“So this is a Dragonblood Warrior?” A twelve year old child holding Nina’s hands who sat next to her said. Nina looked at the figure on the dueling platform, then nodded. “Right. This is the legendary Supreme Warrior.”
Given the relationship between the two of them, Wharton had long ago demonstrated the Dragonform transformation for her.
“Haha, Dragonblood Warrior. Not bad.” Blumer looked at Wharton and began to laugh. “But my Akerlund clan has never believed the Four Supreme Warriors to be all that strong.”
Blumer stared coldly at Wharton as he drew his longsword with a flip of his hand.
The longsword looked like it was forged from a piece of ice, seemingly see-through. Beneath the light of the sun, it radiated all the colors of the rainbow. Blumer confidently looked at Wharton, and he loudly said, “This is the precious sword which my older brother gifted to me: Icedream.”
Wharton hefted the warblade ‘Slaughterer’. In a cold voice, he said, “The warblade, ‘Slaughterer’, the ancestral heirloom of our Baruch clan, the personal weapon of the first Dragonblood Warrior.”
“Oh?” Blumer sneered.
All the onlookers fell silent. They watched with wide eyes carefully trained on this duel between geniuses. They didn’t want to miss a thing.
“Whoosh!”
In the blink of an eye, Blumer seemed to suddenly disappear as a violent gust of wind suddenly appeared out of nowhere in the dueling platform. This was a gust of wind created by Blumer’s speed.
The wind blasted against Wharton’s face, but Wharton simply stood there without moving.
“Hrm?” Wharton suddenly noticed Blumer out of the corner of his left eye. Just as Wharton turned and prepared to attack, he suddenly sensed another gust of wind ambushing him from his right.
Indeed.
Blumer’s real body was to his right.
Laughing coldly, Blumer looked at Wharton as he mercilessly chopped towards Wharton with Icedream. But Wharton, his back facing Blumer, suddenly smashed with his iron-whip-like draconic tail.
“WHAP!” The draconic tail smashed viciously against Icedream, with part of the tail landing against Blumer’s body as well.
“BAM!”
Blumer’s body was sent flying by that blow as if he were but a sandbag. In mid-air, Blumer recovered with a beautiful somersault, landing on one knee at the edge of the platform.
All the viewers held their breath, not daring to chant or shout.
“Ugh.” Blumer spat out a bit of blood, then stared at his chest, where the draconic tail had struck. His clothes had been ripped apart. Although his chest had been protected by battle-qi, the battle-qi had been ripped open. A visible wound was on his chest, and blood was slowly leaking out.
Only now did Wharton turn around, staring at Blumer with his cold black eyes. A golden light flashed through those eyes.
“What powerful force.” Blumer said in a low voice.
Without question, no warrior at the same level possessed the same strength or power of attack as a Dragonblood Warrior. Just a swipe from Wharton’s draconic tail would be enough to deeply wound Blumer.
Blumer now fully understood that in fighting Wharton, he could not allow himself to be struck. Just the tip of the draconic tail had struck his chest, but he had already been wounded. If it had been a full blow, he probably wouldn’t have been wounded so lightly.
“Boom!”
With monstrous force, Wharton kicked off from the ground, which trembled despite the protective magical barriers on it. Transforming into a cruel blur, in the blink of an eye Wharton crossed the hundred meters distance between the two of them as he charged at Blumer.
“Haaaargh!”
Carrying immense force, Slaughterer came crashing down on him. Without hesitating in the slightest, Blumer immediately dodged. At the same moment as when he attacked with the warblade, Wharton spun around and kicked out with both legs viciously at Blumer.
Blumer didn’t dare to block at all, only continuing to retreat at high speed.
“Whap!” But despite his high speed of retreat, that lightning-fast draconic tail snapped towards him once again, and Blumer hurriedly raised Icedream to block.
“Bam!” Despite striking against Icedream, the powerful force of the blow still sent Blumer flying far away towards the spectator stands of the Colosseum. The people standing near the spectator stands quickly scattered as Blumer viciously slammed down.
“Bam!” The stone spectator stands split apart, sending rubble flying everywhere and covering the area with dust.
All the viewers sucked in a cold breath. Dragonblood Warriors were simply too powerful. Because of their terrifyingly powerful draconic scales, their legs, arms, and tail could clash head on against weapons.
This was a major advantage.
“Aaaaargh!” With a wild howl, Blumer came flying out from the dust cloud. He didn’t charge directly at Wharton; rather ,he charged towards the other side of the dueling platform.
With just three massive leaps, Blumer arrived at the other side.
“Blumer, you will definitely lose.” Wharton said coldly.
Blumer’s body was covered in bloodstains, but he still stood ramrod straight. Blumer didn’t look at Wharton, only at the longsword in his hand. “I originally wanted to defeat you using the sword technique that I personally developed. But it seems that I will have to use the sword technique which my older brother taught me.”
“His older brother’s sword technique?”
Haydson could clearly hear each word. “Olivier’s Lightshadow Sword? I wonder how much of Olivier’s technique he has mastered.”
Linley frowned as well.
Olivier’s sword technique?
“Remember, the technique which defeated you is the Lightshadow Sword!” Blumer’s cold voice rang out. Suddenly, the Icedream sword in Blumer’s hand became covered with a layer of golden light.
“Rumble...”
The strange thing was, standing on the dueling platform, Blumer suddenly split into two people, along with the sword in his hands. But then, those two shadows split once more...
One became two. Two became four. Four became eight.
This sight was simply too queer.
“What astonishing speed.” Given his current level of enlightenment, Linley could tell that this Blumer was relying on an astonishing level of speed to reach this effect.
“This speed is actually slightly faster than my fastest speed in human form.” Linley was secretly startled.
Wharton kept a careful, solemn guard. He felt as though he were surrounded by Blumer’s shadows. Blumer was very fast, far faster than him. Even faster than his big brother Linley’s human form.
“You will lose for sure.”
The ice cold voice seemed to ring out simultaneously from all of those human shadows. Just as Wharton tightened his guard even further, those illusionary shadows suddenly blurred as Blumer appeared in front of him.
“Slash!”
Wharton simply didn’t have time to use his warblade to block, and so he could only raise his arm, relying on it to block this blow.
“Clang!” The sound of metal ringing on metal could be heard. Icedream only left a white line on Wharton’s scales, but at the same time, Wharton’s draconic tail...
“Swish!”
The draconic tail came smashing over...but Blumer disappeared yet again.
Having failed with this attack, he had immediately retreated.
“What is going on?” Wharton was shocked. “How did he suddenly appear in front of me just now?”
But Linley had seen everything clearly and understood. “Using the illusionary effects of this Lightshadow technique, he can draw near without his opponents noticing, and then using his astonishing speed, appear in front of his opponent before the opponent has a chance to react.”
Linley was able to use his understanding of the wind to easily determine where his opponent was, as a way to overcome this technique.
Wharton, however, didn’t have much attunement to the wind.
“Why are there so many shadows.” The 80,000 onlookers were stunned. They saw that on the dueling platform, sixteen shadow-Blumers had appeared. As a piercing golden light flashed, one of Blumer’s shadow-bodies appeared in a different location.
The total number of shadows remained sixteen in number.
Whenever one shadow disappeared, another shadow would appear in a different location. Every single time there was a change, there was a flash of golden light.
Bizarre.
Wharton watched carefully. As another golden light flashed, Wharton’s vision was dazzled, but right at this moment, Blumer’s longsword appeared in front of him. Blumer didn’t aim this attack at any other location, only at Wharton’s eyes.
That flashing golden sword had already appeared in front of Wharton’s eyes.