Enraged by Leo's taunts, PinkLotus charged headfirst towards Leo, abandoning her ranged advantage that should have given her an upper hand in the fight.
*Slash*
*Slash*
[Sword Tempest]
Starting with an absolute flurry, she sent two massive slashes towards Leo, before following it up with [Sword Tempest] as she immediately put some serious pressure on Leo to dodge and defend, straight from the get-go.
"The fuck…" Leo cursed, as he moved in a blur, trying to dodge and block the opponents initial barrage.
*Block*
*Block*
*Block*
.
.
.
*Block*
Blocking about 25% of her attacks and dodging the remaining 75%, Leo managed to come out of the initial barrage unscratched, however, he was forced on the back foot from the start.
"Haaaaa!!!" PinkLotus screamed as she closed the distance between the two, and after managing to do that in a blur, she swung her sword towards Leo's waist, with the intention to cleave him in half.
*BLOCK*
Blocking with both hands, Leo tried to deflect the attack upon impact, however, to his horror, the sheer force of the blow sent him flying backwards, as he found himself back flipping through the air.
*Crunch*
*Slide*
After being forcibly pushed back by about 20 meters in the air, Leo slid for an additional five members after landing, as only then did he manage to regain his footing.
And even more shockingly, it turned out that being sent back was not the only problem Leo had to suffer, as apart from being sent back, he also suffered from a crack in his dagger due to PinkLotus's attack, as the powerful blow managed to severely damage both his daggers, rendering them practically useless.
'What insane strength…' Leo thought, as he appreciated the opponents prowess, as although the daggers he used in real world were not as good quality as he used in the VR world, they were not completely trash either.
Damaging them to this degree with one blow was no easy feat and Leo acknowledged it gracefully.
*Drop*
Dropping the damaged daggers, Leo brought out another set from around his waist, while PinkLotus charged towards him for yet another flurry.
"You're going down today! I'm going to get you for sure!" PinkLotus said as she shifted her stance from a one handed sword grip to a two handed one, before sliding her feet as she prepared for a big move.
[Colossal Slash] she said, as she gathered her mana and sent a powerful vertical slash towards Leo, that contained 30% of her mana reserves.
Strong enough to cleave the entire manor behind Leo in half, if left unchecked, the move created a rift in the ground below as it traveled towards Leo, causing goosebumps to arise on his skin.
"If I fuck this up, I'll die" Leo thought, as although it was risky, he decided to send this powerful attack packing towards it's sender, as instead of dodging, he patiently waited for his chance to strike back.
"This is it…. You're done now" PinkLotus said, when she realized that Leo could no longer dodge the attack, however, to her shock, the whole tide turned at the very last second.
At the final moment before the attack was ready to cleave him in half, Leo turned ever so slightly to place his right leg behind his left one.
Then, turning with the force of his full body, he slashed towards the incoming attack with a dagger that streaked with blue light, as he mouthed the words [Full Counter].
At that moment, his dagger collided with the incoming attack and shockingly, instead of continuing in its pre-destined direction, the attack suddenly changed its course, taking a precise 180° turn, as it began moving towards PinkLotus instead.
"No! How?" PinkLotus cursed, as not only did Leo deflect her strongest attack, but he also made it much larger, faster and stronger than before, leaving PinkLotus absolutely defenseless against the counter.
"Bye, bye, bye—" Leo said, waving his palms, as he knew that the fight was effectively over before the attack ever hit PinkLotus, as the only emotion he felt at that moment was pity and worry for his opponents safety.
From that moment onwards, although PinkLotus tried her best to defend against the attack by putting her whole back behind the defense and trying to soften the blow, eventually, her weak sword just broke under the attacks strain and the subsequent aftermath, saw her clothes being torn in half and her chest receiving a deep gash, as she was sent flying backwards.
"ELANDOR, GET HER TO THE MEDICS" Shouted Luke at the top of his lungs, as the moment the fight was concluded, he rushed towards PinkLotus to cover her now injured body with his own robes and prevent excessive blood loss.
The spar had decisively gone in favor of Leo, and at the end, his opponent passed out after being unable to defend against his last blow.
Thankfully, it was not a lethal injury and after being rushed to the medical wing, she recovered in just a short few hours, however, unlike their first spar that was much closer in terms of skills, this proved to be a much more decisive victory for Leo.
On the plus side, this was a huge boost to his confidence, as he needed to win this spar to feel good about his odds of taking down the entire imperial castle by himself.
However, on the down side, this defeat was a major psychological blow for PinkLotus, who once again began to doubt if the gap between herself and Leo was ever as small as she imagined it to be?
Objectively, she had lost today against Leo only due to her bad strategy, as instead of going fighting a fast paced high intensity reflex battle against him, for which she had trained for months, she went for a high impact battle that could be decided with just a few short moves.
Because of her anger heading into the fight, she made a series of bad decisions that led to her defeat, however, looking back she could not spot them as clearly as she should.