Chapter 451: First Blood
(Lewis Hamilton Arena, The Battlefield, Leo’s POV)
Once Veyr activated [Parallel Processing] and began fighting fire with fire, Leo once again found himself being pushed onto the backfoot, as he realized with growing dread that he no longer had the means to take this fight head on.
’He’s too fast... too precise...’
’There are no obvious flaws in his fighting style. Everything from his striking balance to his footwork is elite.’
’He’s a pure fighter, with instincts no worse than my own...’
’I can’t win this head on... I’m completely outclassed here,’ Leo admitted to himself, the confession landing like a punch to the gut, not because he feared losing, but because his pride could not accept the fact that he was the weaker fighter in this bout.
’If I can’t win head on, then the only other option is to resort to tricks and experience....’ Leo thought, as after blocking Veyr’s latest attack, he stepped back instead of pushing forward, creating a small separation between them both.
[Mirror World]
[Vanish]
[StormFlash Traverse]
[Astral Hook Bind]
Leo activated four skills in seamless succession, starting with [Mirror World] to create a dozen clones and cloud Veyr’s field of view, overloading his spatial judgment, before instantly following it up with [Vanish] to slip out of reality’s grip, severing his presence entirely from both the eye and Veyr’s senses.
His true body, now unseen and unreadable, pivoted sharply through the veil of chaos, casting out [Astral Hook Bind] to latch onto Veyr’s form and limit his lateral movement, before coupling it with [StormFlash Traverse] to launch himself forward in a precise, high-speed line of attack, aiming to reach Veyr’s blind spot and land a clean blow while Veyr’s processing power was still catching up.
This was a maneuver he had come up after sparring countless times with Dumpy and Charles.
As of all the moves in his disposal, only these four when used in succession, usually gave him the best odds of landing a blow.
To his relief, the plan worked perfectly, as Veyr faltered..... not visibly, not foolishly, but subtly, in the smallest of hesitations that would have gone unnoticed by most, but to Leo, it was the stutter he had been praying for, the crack in composure caused not by panic but by precise sensory overload, as the sheer input of conflicting data interrupted his flow and allowed just enough room for Leo to land a strike.
*SLASH*
Leo’s dagger lashed out, and a clean, thin line of red blossomed across Veyr’s cheek.
It happened in the blink of an eye, the entire sequence barely spanning a second, as although Veyr reacted in time to angle his head away from the attack and avoid a critical hit to his throat, what he failed to achieve was a completely clean dodge, as by the end, his cheek was still sliced open.
"WHAT? IT’S SKYSHARD WHO DRAWS THE FIRST BLOOD!" Dana’s voice cracked over the stadium speakers, incredulous and struggling to reconcile the outcome with what had seemed like a completely one-sided affair only moments earlier.
"What a combo by the Grandmaster... the speed, the execution, the strategic layering... it allowed him to breach the defenses of a Transcendent Tier opponent! Leo showing the entire Cult that he’s not just here to block—" Joe added, his tone respectful.
"Although the cut is shallow, just the fact that he landed a blow is a victory in itself. Take a bow in front of this generational talent." Dana finished, as a massive cheer rose from the audience.
*ROAR*
*CHEER*
The collective sounds of the cheering audience rolled through the arena like a storm, not because they had sworn allegiance to Leo, nor because they detested Veyr, but simply because they had seen something in Leo’s unexpected counter-attack that stirred within them an intense emotion.
"Yeah, Get in there Leo! Show him why the elders nominated you!"
"You can do this! You can take him down!"
"Don’t lose hope! We are with you!"
The crowd began to cheer Leo, as although they did not have any particular bias towards him, just the fact that he was the weaker fighter and the underdog in this fight, managed to bring him more support than Veyr.
After seeing him struggle, many in the audience began to self project, as they placed themselves in Leo’s shoes and began to pray that he overcame the odds and wrote a success story for the ages.
They didn’t know why they felt this unsaid connection with Leo.
But they simply did.
As what started as a fairly neutral crowd, slowly stirred towards Leo now with every passing second.
"Ha— Hahahaha" Veyr chuckled when he touched the red of his own blood, as he refused to believe that he had been cut by a weaker fighter.
"What a sneaky little trick.... I did not expect you to be such a rat, Cuz. You fight like a scared bitch!" Veyr retorted, as he grabbed the handle of his one handed sword tightly with both hands and began channeling an incredible amount of mana through his body.
"You did well to injure me, but unfortunately for you, this shallow cut has taken away any hope of mercy that you may have received from me, as from this moment onwards I’m truly aiming to split your body in two—" Veyr declared, as the killing aura violently expanded around his body, growing from just five feet wide seconds ago, to fifteen feet wide now, as Leo felt the cold pressure of Veyr’s killing intent press down on his skin.
’Do it.... Unleash your strongest move and waste tonnes of mana— I can block it no problem,’ Leo thought internally, as having full faith in the strength of his necklace and his defensive move [Celestial Veil], he did not interrupt Veyr while he gathered his power, and instead simply braced for impact.
"Letting me gather my strength? That’s a big fucking mistake—" Veyr said coldly, as a breath later, he exploded forward with blinding speed, unleashing his most powerful attack, the [Final Slash].