(Sky God Arena, Finals Match 7)
For the next five minutes, Ramos upped the ante against Leo, pressing down on him relentlessly, as he tried his best to dismantle Leo's defense.
*Clang*
*Clang*
*Clash*
*Clash*
Blade clashed against blade, steel clashed against steel, as Leo barely parried the constant flurry of strikes coming his way.
However, the constant blocking took its toll on him, with the vibrations from Ramos's powerful attacks numbing his wrists and forearms, making each subsequent parry feel heavier than the last.
And Ramos sensed this gap too, his veteran senses able to perceive Leo growing a quarter step slower, as he immediately activated— [Rapid Slash] to capitalize.
*WHIRR*
His blades blurred into motion, tracing shallow arcs meant not to kill, but to pierce and bleed—that disrupted Leo's stance and forced an error.
*Slash*
*Slash*
*Block*
The move paid off, as Leo's block staggered a fraction too wide, allowing Ramos to slide a cut across his left shoulder—then another across the waist a heartbeat later.
*Wince*
Leo winced at the sharp stings—blood drawn from the cuts as his momentum stifled—but he did not yield.
Instead, he stayed within range, forcing Ramos to keep swinging, as he refused to give Ramos the distance he needed to deliver a killing strike.
Leo did not even try to win this fight at this moment, as instead he stuck to his strategy of enduring till Ramos burned out.
Because Leo could see the desperation behind every move Ramos had made so far, even if the crowd or the commentators couldn't, as although it looked like Ramos was dominating this fight, in truth, he was just trying to win fast before his body gave out.
Every time he surged, it was with the full weight of someone who couldn't afford to drag this match out and every technique he used was overcharged, carrying more mana than necessary as he was desperate.
And watching all this firsthand, Leo became mentally assured that Ramos wasn't conserving energy here.
That he was accelerating towards the finish line having faith in his ability to finish the fight before his body gave out, however, if only Leo held on for a bit longer, he could definitely make him pay for such a bold approach.
'You're banking on ending this before I adapt… before your legs give in, but that won't happen….. I'm going to outlast you!' Leo thought, adjusting his stance again, blades angled for quicker deflections now rather than full-on blocks.
[Moon Dive]
Ramos activated his next move at this moment—a sweeping shoulder-first charge that used the flat of one blade for cover while the second arm was retracted for a follow-up strike meant to pin Leo mid-evade.
It was a move built for fighters who dodged backward.
But Leo ducked inward.
He bent low, letting the charge pass just inches above his head as he threw his weight sideways into a short roll, letting the second blade scrape against his arm as he barely avoided the full arc.
It hurt—being nicked by the opponent's blade—but it was still within the bounds of what he could tolerate.
*THUD*
Ramos spun to chase the retreat, his expression narrowing as frustration leaked through his previous confident mask.
And Leo saw it too.
The faint twitch in his left leg. The way his stance reset just a beat slower and the way his shoulder roll had lost some of its previous crispness.
'He's burning out—-'
Leo realized, his confidence bolstering, however, although it seemed like he was on his way to burning out, Ramos wasn't done quite just yet.
[Wind Shredder]
With a growl, Ramos activated another technique—this one a ranged wind arc blast launched from a slash overhead, the wave splitting the sand in its path as it roared toward Leo.
Leo prepared to dodge—but this attack was too close, too fast, and too wide for him to dodge effectively.
So instead, he braced.
[Celestial Veil]
Mana surged outward from Leo's core, wrapping his body in a shimmering film of translucent force that deflected the incoming arc with a deafening impact.
*BOOM*
Sand exploded outward as the force of the attack collided with his barrier—and then seconds later when it settled, Leo was still standing inside, unharmed, as it seemed like his barrier had outlasted Ramos's attack in the end.
"A nice trick, but now block this—"
Ramos said, as he burst through the dust cloud with both blades raised high—his expression feral, his arms coiled for a finishing blow.
But Leo wasn't retreating this time.
He had seen what he needed to see.
He had waited for as long as he needed to wait, and this was finally the moment he had been waiting for.
As the tipping point was finally here!
[Phantom Bloom]
Ramos activated Phantom Bloom, the same move he had used to defeat Yu Shen, whereby his body blurred into two distinct afterimages, one darting left, the other one right, making a fighter confused on which was the real one?
However, Leo did not play his game.
Having anticipated that he would use [Phantom Bloom] when he was at his most desperate, Leo countered by using [Blade Switch] as he teleported 25 meters away, escaping Ramos's area of effect completely, as he rendered his special move useless.
"Coward–!" Ramos yelled, as both his afterimages merged into one once again, however, Leo did not care.
Leo had seen how erratically Ramos was breathing now, and how the wounds he had received against Yu Shen were now acting up again making his movements slower.
As Leo made the leap of faith and activated [Thousand Phantom Slashes] at this moment.
Leo's form blurred for a single breath, and then—
He was everywhere.
Dozens of him, dishing out dozens of slashes.
Afterimages bloomed around Ramos like a sudden storm, each one flickering in and out of sight with terrifying unpredictability.
Some came from above, some from the side, others from seemingly impossible angles as Leo's real form danced through them, indistinguishable from the mirage.
At this moment---
Ramos turned sharply, raising his blades in defense— as *Clang!*, a strike collided with his shoulder.
He spun and *Clang*, another one deflected off his leg.
But when he swept a blade in a wide arc, hoping to counter, it caught nothing but air as Ramos panicked.
"Which one… is real?!" Ramos hissed, his voice now laced with alarm as he pivoted frantically, trying to lock onto the rhythm.
But there wasn't one.
That was the genius of it.
Thousand Phantom Slashes didn't rely on sequence—it thrived on chaos. It wasn't about landing a fatal blow with brute power—it was about suffocating the opponent in uncertainty.
And Leo, having spent the past twenty minutes studying Ramos's timing, reactions, and pivot preferences, unleashed the technique with such pinpoint precision— that each slash he unleashed was placed not to strike, but to force Ramos's footwork into compromised patterns.
*Clang!*
*Clink!*
*Whiff!*
*Clang!*
The Geneva captain was deflecting by instinct now.
Not by plan.
As his rhythm was visibly broken.
And Leo saw it.
The twitch in the wrist. The stagger in the backstep. The slightly-too-wide swing of the right blade. Ramos was no longer responding to Leo—he was reacting to phantoms, his eyes already horrified by this unknown variable.
"This wasn't in my data sheet…. I've never seen or heard about you using this move before, don't tell me you hid it all the way to the finals—" Ramos said in shock, as Leo closed in.
Strike by strike, fake by fake, the real Leo drew closer—and then—
*SLASH!*
One slash landed deep—right across Ramos's ribs.
The real one.
Ramos gasped, stumbling backward with a wide-eyed expression as blood soaked into his side, as Leo's real form, carved his body open like it were a pumpkin.
*SLASH*
*SLASH*
*SLASH*
*SLASH*
*SLASH*
Leo turned him into a helpless ragdoll, as he sliced open every major vein, every major artery in his body, turning him into a standing blood fountain, with him unable to so much as lift a finger in response.
"You... tricked me…" Ramos muttered in disbelief before collapsing.
As Leo didn't respond with words.
Instead, he just stepped forward—calm, precise—and drove the hilt of his dagger into Ramos's solar plexus, knocking him out cold.
"WINNER: LEO SKYSHARD OF RODOVA!"
The referee declared at that moment, as the crowd didn't cheer right away.
They were stunned to do so.
And then—
*ROAR—!*
Rodova's section erupted like a volcano as the referee raised Leo's hand in victory.
Cheers cascaded across the arena like a tidal wave, drowning out even the announcers for a moment as the stadium rocked with applause.
Nobody had expected Leo to take down Gu Ramos, Geneva's captain, but against all odds he had, and now the score was 4-4, with everything on the line for the final battle.
This was without a doubt, the closest Circuits finals in the past two decades, and Leo Skyshard was the main character of it, having led Rodova from certain defeat to almost the cusp of victory.