The Universe Is Innately Just 133 Trial By Fire Part Four

Suddenly, his hands moved toward his waist. The movement might have been simple, but Fell could swear that there was a kind of beauty in its execution, a beauty born from relentless training and millions of executions. Fell didn't know if the bony figure in front of him had been modeled from a known figure, but this simple execution of a drawing technique left a deep, lasting image in his psyche. For a split second, he even forgot about the danger that would befall on him as the giant skeleton smoothly drew his scimitars.

Fell regained his senses the moment two crescent moon shaped blades appeared in his sight, a s.h.i.+ning red light was reflected on their edges, and Fell immediately sensed that an immediate attack was aiming at his neck. He had been standing quite a distance away from the dark s.h.i.+ning skeleton and had slightly dropped his guard. Thankfully his mind alarmed him with dozens of signals as he knew that if he didn't move, impending doom would fall on him. He stepped back in a split second, sending his body hurling a few meters away. But this act didn't calm his alarmed mind. He knew that something was wrong, terribly wrong. However, he had no means to predict his opponent's attack. He tried to calm his mind by reminding himself that he had faced Karukobi's impressive long range cuts, the moment he thought about it, the attack from the skeleton was launched.

It was two simple swipes of scimitars; the bladed weapons smoothly cut through the air without producing any sound. The moment the action was executed, Fell felt the s.p.a.ce in front of the s.h.i.+ning skeleton fluctuate for a second before it died down. His senses were sending him constant alarm as he immediately understood that the skeleton's attack wasn't comparable to Karukobi's at all; one relied on a fast drawing technique to compress the air blade into thin lines that could travel a distance. While the other was too soft to rely on air pressure.

All of a sudden, Fell felt the air around him fluctuate, and even as he senses told him that there was nothing behind him, his sword flew at his back and came in contact with something. The thing that Fell's sword touched was beyond sharp, and Fell couldn't help but draw a sharp breath as he tried to divert the attack to his side. He managed to redirect the hidden attack with difficulty as he had to react on the spot, and ended up with a deep cut near his rib cage. Thankfully he had acted quickly, or he might have ended up with more than a cut on his side. From the short contact with the skeleton's attack, he knew that his avatar's body was far from being resilient to support any direct damage from the skeleton's strikes.

"What the h.e.l.l was that!?" he thought as he hissed a cold breath. His mind swiftly resumed the scene in his mind in a split second, and he quickly a.s.sembled the puzzle. "That b.a.s.t.a.r.d can cut through s.p.a.ce!" he blurted out loud. At the same moment he spoke, the dark skeleton moved again and his bladed weapon were swiped again. Only this time, his limbs flashed twice in front of him. It was the same scenario but twice as deadly.

Knowing that the attack traveled through s.p.a.ce, Fell swiftly shut down his thoughts and fully focused on sensing the fluctuations in the nearby s.p.a.ce. Although he had a tendency to think a lot during his fights, he knew when to think and when to act. Now that he had understood his opponent's mystical means of attacking, he only needed to get used to the spatial fluctuation that his cuts caused when traveling through the air nearby. Thankfully as a cultivator, he had already developed a very basic understanding of s.p.a.ce. And although he was very far from being capable of reproducing the skeleton's attack, perceiving it was a whole different story and was clearly in his range of capacity.

But even with his preparation, he had underestimated the skeleton far too much. Instead of appearing from a single spot around Fell, the four strikes the skeleton had executed appeared in different spots in the s.p.a.ce around Fell. Although he had sensed them, the fact that he had to defend himself from different angles while sensing the surrounding s.p.a.ce made the action difficult to execute. What was even worst was the timing of the four s.p.a.ce cuts. Instead of appearing one after the other with a clear rhythm, The skeleton boss made them challenging to read. A single mistake would mean the loss of a limb for Fell. Or even worse, the end of the trial by fire.

Fell's eyes glowed in a crazed light as he felt the four cuts appear in the s.p.a.ce surrounding him, all of his escape routes had been cut, and the skeleton had forced him into facing them. His mind boomed during the stressful event, and he roared with a heaven-defying howl as his whole body moved to defend himself. "I'm not going to stop here!!" he thought as his will to live kindled his fighting spirit.

His hand executed dozen of sword strike while his body rotated near-instantly, adding strength to his strokes. PPPPPa! Sounds of steal hitting steal in repet.i.tion resounded for a split second through the large plaza. He breathed roughly as he managed to repel the final cut with difficulty; blood poured from a slit that appeared in his hand and splashed on the ground of the plaza.