Way of the Knights

Chapter 454 - Tournament 1.5

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*Boom!*

"Ooh! Scary, scary~" 

Amidst the thick dusts of clouds within the arena, an ever-present grin was plastered on Jason's face as he calmly evaded the fatal strikes of Juniper in his partial transformation state. Although he was barely avoiding each slashes, no panic could be seen on his face at all. 

"Is that all that you can do, filth? Evade? Fight me like a man!" Juniper demanded as he deliver yet another quick hack with his blade. 

"Try and hit me first before you say that." Jason replied smugly as he gracefully evaded yet another fatal slash from Juniper. The grin on his face remained clear as he came out practically unscathed by his enemy's blade. 

Jason wasn't even bothering to attack using his scimitars. Juniper was fast and strong, each strike of his was quick and lethal, it couldn't be followed through the naked eye and the force behind it was enough to leave cracks on the reinforced arena. 

Yet no matter how quick and strong his attacks were, it was useless since Jason was lithe of his feet. He moved like an agile wind, almost as if he was dancing around Juniper and leading him on to launch an attack once again. This grace and sophistication was something that majority of the crowd didn't expect for someone like Jason, specially with his roguish looks. 

On the other hand, Juniper fought like a crazed animal. The savage aura around him could be felt from miles away. His attacks were unpolished and without a grace, he swung his blade like a blunt club, not caring one whit about style nor disciples. The crowd felt like they were watching a brute or a barbarian, which again not something that they expected from the way Juniper carried himself earlier. 

That being said, Juniper's biggest fan, seems to not care even one bit about what others think. Instead, he cheered for his Young Master with even more ferocity, almost matching his master's savageness. Meanwhile, those who knew Jason's background, found this current situation incredibly unpleasant and tried disrupting Jason's rhythm but to no avail.

Certainly, the situation within the whole stadium was weird...

It seems that judging a book by its cover was never been the wisest choice. And the current state of the fight definitely proves this. 

Juniper was currently feeling incensed. The constant irritation he felt whenever Jason evaded his attacks kept piling up over time and constantly eroded his sanity. He couldn't understand what's going on. It wasn't like Jason was fast or anything. In fact, Juniper could easily follow his movements and he's also sure that he's swift enough to hack him into pieces. However, no matter how many times he tried to do so, it always ends up in failure. 

In addition to the ever present grin on Jason's face, the level of irritation that Juniper felt was something that he had never felt before. 

Slowly but surely, the clarity on his eyes disappeared and were replaced by pure savageness. He continued to draw more power from the blood oath, pushing it to his absolute limits and also causing his body to morph into something that barely resembles a human.

Still, no matter how much power he drew in from the blood oath, he never managed to touch the hem of Jason's clothes. The latter remained slippery like an eel, his grinning face had long since transformed into a mocking sneer in Juniper's mind. 

Of course, Jason was also constantly paying attention to his enemy's condition. Although it appears as if he was playing around, dodging Juniper's attack's constantly isn't as easy as he makes it look. Needless to say, even though he wasn't actively clashing blades with Juniper, he was already assaulting his endurance by forcing him in this situation. 

'It's about time to end this.' Jason murmured inwardly as he Juniper's labored breathing and trembling arms, as well as his fading transformation. 

Jason assumed a stance by placing both of scimitars parallel to each other and on the floor. A glint of seriousness appeared in his face for the first time and he gathered his energy to coat his weapons. A tremendous fluctuation emanated from his weapons but it only occurred in a fraction of a second before Jason disappeared like a flash of light. 

"Fanatical Blade Style - Twin Stances: Howling White Ripple." 

A loud whistling sound was heard everywhere. A white flash of light momentarily blinded everyone. 

When Jason appeared, he was already behind Juniper, who stood there as if he saw something incredible. Jason didn't even bother looking back, he sheathed both of his scimitars and started walking away from the arena.

At the instant he took his first step, Juniper's eyes rolled backwards. 

During the second step, Juniper's body knelt down. 

At the third step, Juniper fell onto the ground unconscious. A pool of blood emerged from beneath his body. 

"Winner of this match: Jason Sigmus!" The referee announced but no one clapped nor cheered on for Jason. 

It was as if the crowd was still confused and befuddled by the howling sound and the blinding flash of white light just now. It was only when the medics carried Juniper's unconscious body towards the recovery area that they realized that the match was truly over. 

Some people clapped, but those didn't erase the awkward atmosphere within the crowd. Meanwhile, some people were certainly not happy that Jason won. A few even insisted that he must've cheated in the match just now, but of course none of them dared to truly confront the administrators about it. 

What a joke! Even the people who called out Jason for cheating, knew themselves that he couldn't possibly do that under the eyes of the Envoys, and since the management didn't say or revealed any signs of cheating, then it means that Jason didn't cheat at all. They were merely unsatisfied with this outcome therefore they voiced out such ridiculous claims. 

Back in the private rooms, most of the wiser people were in a daze. Even Raul himself was also rendered like that. 

All of them were trying to guess what just happened, specially during Jason's attack. Most of them kept repeating the last scene in their heads, trying to decipher it. However, most of them was left in confusion.

"What the hell?" Albert grumbled in a displeased manner. "What in the world was that!? It was so fast, I didn't even manage to see it!" 

Although he was displeased, Albert only felt this way since he could the immense threat behind that attack. His whole body practically screamed danger upon seeing Jason's stance. If it was him on that arena, he wouldn't be sure if he could take that blow head on. 

"It's his Laws." Raul replied on the side, catching everyone's attention. "But I'm not sure what it was." 

"Ah! It's Light Laws then!" Albert exclaimed, "He turned into a white flash and attacked with a tremendous speed." 

"Fool!" Raul chided, causing Albert to be startled. "It's not Light Laws! If it is, then how come you weren't able to follow it? You're a Saint Knight for crying out loud. You've face Light Law users before, did any of them were as fast as him?" 

"Then what is it?" Albert scrunched up his face in displeasure. 

"Let me give you a clue." Raven commented on the side, causing everyone to look at him. Even Raul himself was paying attention and was surprised that Raven knew since he doesn't. "Don't look at that flash of light, that's nothing but a decoy. Neither you should pay attention on what happened during that flash, since he barely did at thing at all. Instead, pay attention to what happened before the attack happened."

"Huh?" Albert tilted his head confusion, he then traced his chin and recalled the fight earlier. "I can only remember him doing a stance before it all happened though."

Raven smiled and asked: "Really? Are you sure? Try remembering it clearly." 

The room turned silent, everyone in the room recalled what happened to the fight per Raven's suggestions. After a while of silence, Albert replied:

"Are you referring to the fluctuation when he released the stance?" 

Hearing this caused Raven to smile and for Raul's eyes to instantly brighten, he instantly looked at Raven with disbelief written on his face. 

"But that doesn't really tell me anything though. Isn't it normal for an attack of that caliber to release a strong fluctuation?"

"It is." Raven replied calmly, "But like I said earlier, the flash that we all saw was nothing more than a decoy - a distraction per se, and in truth Jason barely did anything at all. He just disappeared from his previous location and appeared behind Juniper. Don't go thinking that he's fast cause his legs didn't move at all."

"Eh?" Albert scratched his head in confusion, nobody could blame him, even the experienced guards behind him as well as the majority of the experts who watched didn't know what happened as well. 

"Like I said, that flash of light was fake. It didn't do and won't do anything cause Jason already finished attacking by then. You said fluctuations right? You were right. It was the fluctuation, that was the attack. Or to be more precise…"

"It's the Ripples."