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Chapter 142
Chapter 142
Chapter 142
“Hmm.”
As the four-on-one battle began, the pressure increased exponentially. It wasn’t just energy waves radiating randomly, but rather, it was concentrated energy directed solely at Leonard. The weight of it pressed down on his head and shoulders, and he narrowed his eyes as he attempted to pinpoint the source of the pressure.
It was Hugo.
Hugo lifted his greatsword above his head, ready to strike with all his might. A full-force attack from a Transcendence Tier knight who had put his life on the line was not something to be taken lightly, even for Leonard.
An all-or-nothing heavy sword strike, huh? What about the others?
Their demeanor seemed to blend into the oppressive atmosphere, becoming one with it, but Leonard was no stranger to these types of attacks. He had experienced them countless times in his previous life.
Leonard’s gaze moved nonchalantly to Grady and Janet, who were closing in on Hugo’s left and right flanks.
So Janet, the dual-wielder, will take the front while Grady, the rapier user, is going to target my back since he can move freely from half a step behind.
Given Grady’s specialization in thrusting, the formation made sense. Thrusting, which didn’t consider defense and counterattacks, focused on speed and precision to exploit the opponent’s weaknesses. It would undoubtedly be less effective in direct clashes.
In one-on-one combat, avoiding such attacks might be impossible, but in a many-against-one scenario, they simply needed someone to absorb the brunt as the vanguard.
Leonard’s eyes twitched slightly as he observed Janet’s footwork.
Her center of gravity is shifting.
She had a different fighting style from Herman, the swordsman Leonard had faced twice in Atlantis. Herman’s footwork was heavy and created fierce momentum, while Janet’s movements were light and fleeting, reminiscent of a gentle breeze. Her footwork was based on flexibility rather than momentum.
...This guy seems to be the most troublesome.
Lastly, Leonard turned his attention to Isaac, the Third Captain of the Order of the White Dragon.
Despite using his Dragon Eyes, he couldn’t fully discern Isaac’s unique traits, including his swordsmanship style and martial arts characteristics. His inefficient stance was a testament to the truly strong, who relied on natural stances rather than conventional efficiency. In higher-level battles, concealing even a small detail about oneself could prove more advantageous than starting with a more efficient stance.
Within a fraction of a second, Leonard had assessed all four opponents and raised his sword. He was outnumbered, but if he hesitated and ceded the initiative, he would be stuck in a defensive position for at least a hundred seconds. There was no reason to drag out the battle where he aimed to prove himself.
If this were a life-and-death battle, he would have aimed to kill the weakest opponent first to even the odds. However, the premise of this duel was to subdue all four without inflicting fatal injuries, which meant he was not allowed to use any techniques that his opponents couldn’t defend themselves against. He had to precisely gauge not only his own capabilities but also those of his opponents.
A blue sword energy erupted from Leonard’s blade.
Five Elements Style
Azure Dragon First Form: Thundershock
The sword trajectory was simple yet so fast and sharp that no one dared to counter it. Janet, facing Leonard’s strike head-on, crossed her swords with a grim expression. She wasn’t confident she could block it with just one blade.
Clang!
“Urgh!?”
Sure enough, Janet, unable to withstand Leonard’s swift sword, was pushed back three steps and stumbled, revealing a significant gap in her defense. Grady’s rapier immediately lunged to cover that gap.
Leonard’s flawless sword energy had overwhelmed Janet.
Whizz—!
It sounded like a single thrust, but there were five stabs in total. With each strike, Grady’s blade extended and retracted with precision, targeting Leonard’s vital points in rapid succession. Leonard, stepping back a step and a half, parried the consecutive thrusts with two slashes.
The principle behind his thrusting techniques isn’t anything special. Compared to the Sunstrike Sword Art, it’s slightly below five-star proficiency.
Nevertheless, Grady’s impeccable timing and positioning had effectively stopped Leonard in his tracks, proving he had a knack for grasping the rhythm of battle. He had managed to save Janet by buying a second or so.
“Haaargh!”
At that instant, Hugo charged in, using the brief window created by Janet’s defense and Grady’s surprise attack. His greatsword loomed over his head, incredibly imposing. Unlike Janet’s dexterity or Grady’s finesse, Hugo’s sword strike was purely about raw strength, so much so that it almost felt inhuman.
Is this a Dragon Blood Awakening trait? Muscle, tendons, or perhaps bones?
With everyone fully clad in plate armor, Leonard couldn’t discern any dragon traits just from their appearances. Only by activating the penetrating sight of his Dragon Eyes could he see Hugo’s abnormally dense muscle fibers, compressed to several times their normal density.
Even Leonard, who was transcending mortal levels, would have his bones shattered if he fought Hugo with raw strength.
Five Elements Style
Black Tortoise Ninth Form: Great Moon Anti-Yin Mirror
However, if Leonard could be overwhelmed just with physical power, he wouldn’t have survived his life-and-death duel with Pablo.
Black augmented energy, dark as ink, formed a full moon. Not even the brute strength that could tear an ogre’s limbs apart could shatter a full moon.
Hugo’s greatsword, slipping off Leonard’s counter technique, spun wildly, tearing through the air and stirring a cloud of dust.
Failing his all-or-nothing heavy strike, Hugo was left with a critical gap in his defense, something he was painfully aware of. Yet Leonard, instead of exploiting that gap, extended his sword in another direction, as though someone was hiding in the cloud of dust.
“...Unbelievable. You sensed my presence?” Isaac asked with a rigid face after emerging from the blind spot.
“I didn't sense you,” Leonard answered honestly. His still-unrefined Dragon Eyes hadn’t detected Isaac.
“Then why were you on guard toward the direction I was in?”
“From my perspective, if I were to exploit Sir Hugo’s vulnerability, that would’ve been the best angle to strike from. Considering your proficiency in teaming up against one enemy, I figured you might have purposely shown an opening to lure me in.”
Isaac’s eyes flashed with admiration. “I see... Your insight surpasses your unmatched talent! No wonder Commander Demian holds you in such high regard.”
Praising Leonard fervently, Isaac made a peculiar hand signal to the three knights. Picking up on his signal, the knights swiftly repositioned themselves. It looked like they were about to employ a proper battle formation.
“Alright, we shall go all out now. Unless we need to use our traits or techniques we can’t control, we won’t hesitate until a winner is decided. Are you fine with that?”
The Cardenas family’s Order of the White Dragon, known for subduing the fragments of the ancient gods, declared their challenge. Acknowledging Leonard’s strength, they set aside their age and dignity to confront him.
Receiving their challenge, Leonard responded with his blade, a brilliant blue sword energy flaring up. He was unfazed by the knights’ formidable presence; rather, he was the one overwhelming them. It was clear to anyone that Leonard hadn’t been serious until this moment.
Momentarily stunned by his response, the four White Dragon knights expanded their formation and surrounded Leonard. With their numerical superiority, they could encircle him completely.
This is similar to the Four Symbols Sword Formation that moves fluidly.
As their formation was similar to one he had encountered a few times in his past life, Leonard managed to grasp their strategy.
Facing him directly was Isaac, representing the Sun; Janet, aiming from behind, represented the Moon; Hugo, lifting his greatsword from the right, was the Lesser Sun; Grady, looking for openings on the left, corresponded to the Lesser Moon. It was a formation designed to wear down and kill an enemy trapped in the encirclement.
Leonard decided to take the initiative.
Five Elements Style
Vermillion Bird Seventeenth Form: Scorching Inferno
A crimson augmented sword energy, like a red lotus, erupted, unleashing a grand and brilliant heat. He intended to forcefully strike the entire formation to identify any weak points. The scorching flame sword, now several times more powerful than when Leonard was at the External Force Tier, distorted the area with heatwaves.
The crimson augmented sword energy swept around, weakening the encirclement with its heat and pressure. Grady and Janet were pushed back relatively further than the other two.
Approaching a swift sword user who specializes in thrusting is a bit daunting.
This was evident even in the way spears, weapons more specialized for thrusting than swords, were used. Cavalry, capable of mowing down dozens of soldiers in a full charge, still found it daunting to face a formation of spearmen. Rather than initiating an attack, thrusting was advantageous for intercepting an enemy’s advance and exploiting any exposed weaknesses.
Quickly coming to a decision, Leonard turned to Janet, who had stepped back two paces, and thrust his sword.
Five Elements Style
Azure Dragon Eighteenth Form: Thunderclap Return
Dozens of waves of blue sword energy shot out, targeting Janet’s vital points.
I’ll suppress her by striking her acupoints with sword energy.
Though Leonard was technically using augmented sword energy, he wasn’t unleashing his full power. The aim was to render Janet incapable of fighting without inflicting fatal injuries, fulfilling the conditions of this duel.
Originally, such a technique wouldn’t work against someone at the Transcendence Tier, but Leonard’s augmented sword energy, now enhanced by his Five Elements Augmented Qi, could even suppress the augmented energy shield and acupoints of an opponent at the same level.
“Wow! That was close.”
However, thanks to her incredible footwork, which Leonard had noticed from the start, Janet managed to evade all the energy waves unleashed by the Thunderclap Return without so much as being grazed.
The fluidity of her movements was extraordinary, gliding across the battlefield as though free from the constraints of inertia, with her center of gravity shifting unpredictably. If not for her incredible flexibility, Leonard would have managed to read her moves with his Dragon Eyes.
...It’s a unique trait!
Just as Leonard realized why Janet could move in such an outstanding manner, the other three knights closed in with a coordinated attack. The pressure from Hugo’s greatsword pinned him down; Grady’s thrusts sealed his escape routes; and Isaac used their numerical advantage to the maximum.
Leonard lost the initiative by turning a fraction too late. Unlike the other three knights, Isaac’s swordsmanship was so refined that Leonard couldn’t overturn the stalemate.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Their clash was reminiscent of the evenly-matched fight between Tyr and Demian. Although Leonard and Isaac were not flawless, the difference in skill wasn’t significant enough for either one of them to aim for any openings.
If this had been a duel, Leonard and Isaac would have been at a stalemate for over half a day. However, that wasn’t the case now.
Grady managed to graze Leonard’s ear with a side thrust, drawing a few drops of blood.
Ugh, they’re so meticulous!
It was as though he were entangled in a finely woven web made from the Divine Silkworm’s silk, restricting his movements. Even the greatest power and techniques required freedom of movement to be effective.
The White Dragon knights’ coordinated attacks were exceptional at suppressing an opponent stronger than them, and they were confident they could corner even a Demigod Tier opponent for a few minutes.
Boom...!
The ground shook from Hugo’s downward strike with his greatsword, slightly disrupting Leonard’s timing for a perfect dodge. Hesitating even for a fraction of a second could prove fatal when facing four Transcendence Tier swordsmen.
As the knights, all expert swordsmen, closed in, Leonard was forced to admit it.
One sword isn’t good enough.
At that moment, four swords emerged from his subspace pouch.
Five Elements Style, Four Swords Style
Black Tortoise Third Form: Ending Massacre of the North Gate
Three sword strikes flew out simultaneously. Leonard didn’t pay any heed to Hugo, who was delayed from trying to restrict his movements. However, it was precisely this delay that caused their immaculate formation, which had given them the upper hand, to crack.
The unexpected counterattack pierced three of them. Leonard, seemingly caught off guard, had unleashed four swords from his waist. The four knights turned pale from the shock, and they hastily adjusted their stances. Isaac faced two of the swords, while Grady and Janet faced one each.
Clang!
Befitting of the elites of the Order of the White Dragon, none of Leonard’s strikes landed an effective hit. However, they lost their momentum as they blocked the flying swords, forced to abruptly switch from offense to defense.
Having turned the tide of the battle, it was now Leonard’s turn to go on the offense.
Five Elements Style
White Tiger Thirty-Sixth Form: Mount Tai Crushing Strike
Leonard lifted his sword high above his head, then brought it crashing down on the three knights with overwhelming force.