Luke remained laser focused on his fight against The Boss.
No matter which direction the boss's dagger came from, Luke was ready to block it as he remained laser focused on Leo's wrist movements.
*Block*
*Block*
*Block*
A full two minutes passed by since their fight started, however, neither side managed to land a hit on the other, as it wasn't until Leo realized that he was down to his final two sets of 12 daggers each that he paused his reckless barrage of daggers throws.
He was now left with only 24 daggers and 4 explosive daggers and needed to make every last one of them count if he wanted to win this fight, as he was almost a toothless tiger without his daggers.
"Eh? Running out of daggers? Why did you pause so abruptly?" Luke said, teasing Leo, as the start of this fight had gone much better for him than he could have ever expected.
"Nope," Leo replied, charging in to fight at close range, gripping a dagger tightly in both hands.
*Slash*
*Slash*
Weaving through Luke's defenses, Leo swung his daggers in precise slashes, as he progressively turned more ruthless as the fight progressed.
Uptil now he had tried to be as mild as possible and tried to beat his brother with the minimum humiliation possible, however, his brother's defenses were just too good to open up from range, as eventually Leo was forced to fight hand to hand.
*Slash*
Finally, as Leo lunged for Luke's ankles, Luke was forced to take a step back, momentarily exposing his far-side arm outside the cover of his shield.
Seizing the opportunity, Leo used his superior speed to close the gap and slashed his brother's exposed arm, scoring the first hit.
-50.
"OOOOOO"
The audience cheered for the first hit of the match, as after almost two and a half minutes of no serious action, the fight seemed to be finally warming up.
*Thrust*
*Parry*
*Shua*
To compensate for the hit, Luke tried to retaliate by thrusting his sword forwards strategically, as he tried to push Leo into an unfavorable fighting position, however, he failed to achieve his objective as Leo weaved through his attacks with ease.
Building on the momentum of his first hit, Leo became even more ruthless as he began thrashing Luke's defenses at close range.
By systematically targeting Luke's joints, Leo aimed to restrict his movement as once he got into his killer zone and shrugged off his hesitation in hitting his brother, Leo got back to his usual best, displaying the sheer class of the fighter that was 'TheBoss'.
Quick on his feet and unburdened by heavy armor, Leo moved like the wind as he effortlessly dodged his brother's sword stabs and found openings in his defenses like they were nothing too difficult to find.
A slash to the right thigh, a slash to the left calf, a slash to the right arm, a slash to the left shoulder…. He carved his brother up like a stick of butter, as he absolutely destroyed the perfected academy knight's defensive form that was claimed as the most effective defensive strategy under the master level.
One after another, Leo racked up minor slash wounds on his brother as although the wounds were not deep or particularly dangerous, they made Luke wince in pain turning each movement that he made into a constant reminder of the injuries he received, psychologically slowing his reactions and movements.
What started as a fight where Leo could not land a single hit, slowly evolved into a one sided thrashing as every ten seconds or so, Leo managed to place a new shallow gash upon Luke, who had no reply for his technique and superior speed.
'I just need one chance... one chance to grab hold of him. One chance to win it all,' Luke thought to himself as despite clearly being on the backfoot, he kept trying to read Leo's movements, attempting to discern a pattern.
Yesterday, after hours of brainstorming with Cervantez on how to fight The Boss, the duo had concluded that the key for Luke to be able to beat him was for him to read The Boss's attack patterns and anticipate his next move before he made it.
Since Luke could never hope to match The Boss's freakish speed, the only way for him to grab a hold of the guy was by making a pre-emptive strike, however, to make a pre-emptive strike he needed to observe and predict his opponents movements before they made it.
While to the general audience Luke's approach to this fight seemed extremely boring and passive, in reality it was just Luke waiting for a chance to turn it all around, as slowly but surely he was starting to see a pattern emerge behind the boss's attacks.
"I knew it…. SkyLion isn't nearly as good as DarkEmperor, compared to yesterday's match, this one is a sham"
"SkyLion…. What is the lad even doing? He's down to his final 40% HP and he's not even trying hard yet! Is he just going to let himself be absolutely bullied like this?"
"Too dominant…. The Boss is too dominant even in the finals"
"Agh just quit already, you're embarrassing yourself by fighting so badly SkyLion, you're making all young knight's look bad"
The crowd, seeing Luke being absolutely dominated, turned against him as they booed, jeered and mocked him.
The support for him within the grand arena was already minimal before the fight started, with the chants in his support being barely audible, however, at this point in the fight, even among his own fans, there was a palpable sense of despair as they watched him struggle.
They had hoped for a valiant performance from him, but seeing their hero fight so poorly was disheartening as the once enthusiastic cheers at the start of the flight by them slowly turned into murmurs of concern and disbelief.
As his HP dropped below 30%, the reality of the situation became painfully clear to his supporters .
His body, covered in cuts from head to toe, began to seep blood and make him look like a bleeding fountain.
The sight was extremely gruesome, and the upper pavilion, which was where most of his support originated from, fell into an uneasy silence when they witnessed this sight.
Some fans, being unable to watch any longer, turned their heads away or covered their eyes.
The tension in the air was thick, as everyone waited with bated breath to see if he could muster a comeback. However, with each drop of blood that he lost, their hopes dwindled further, as the upper pavilion, once filled with the anticipation of a thrilling battle, now resonated with the harsh reality of his impending defeat.
Although none of his injuries were critical, accumulated, they became a huge hindrance for him, however, Luke did not care as he patiently kept waiting for his chance to strike.
'What are you doing brother? Why aren't you pushing back?' Leo wondered, as even he started to feel bad about cutting his brother up so badly the longer the fight progressed.
'Left foot, left, right, right, center, left'
Luke had memorized this pattern of Leo's attacks and watched him use it thrice by this point, as when Leo activated the same sequence for the fourth time, Luke knew that it was finally his time to strike.
Left, left, right, right….
As soon as this sequence began, instead of going for the center, Luke dropped his weapon and shield and lunged towards the left where he anticipated Leo to be a move later, as distracted by his inner thoughts Leo continued with his usual attack pattern without realizing that he needed to abort and evade.
By the time he realized his mistake, Luke had already managed to get him into a bear hug, as he hoisted him over his head with extreme power and precision.
Poised for a German Suplex…..
—-----
/// A/N - Bonus chapter for hitting the PS target, good job everyone! ///